Journalist Percy Lapid’s homicide has many questioning in regards to the subsequent period of press freedom.
When former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte left workplace this 12 months, it marked a change within the authorities’s antagonistic relationship with the media. However new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is the son of a former dictator who led a crackdown on the media a long time in the past, so when radio commentator Percy Lapid was shot useless close to Manila on October 3, it left journalists questioning what this authorities’s response may present about how secure they are going to be on this subsequent chapter.
On this episode:
- Roy Mabasa (@roymabasa), journalist and brother of Percy Lapid
- Jonathan de Santos (@desamting), chairman of the Nationwide Union of Journalists of the Philippines
- Carlos Conde (@condeHRW), senior Philippines researcher at Human Rights Watch
Join with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Fb
Full episode transcript:
This transcript was created utilizing AI. It’s been reviewed by people, however it may comprise errors. Please tell us in case you have any corrections or questions, our e-mail is TheTake@aljazeera.web.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Once you’re out and about and folks ask you, do you inform folks that you just’re a journalist?
Jonathan de Santos: I used to.
Halla Mohieddeen: When Jonathan de Santos first turned a journalist within the Philippines, it wasn’t a occupation he hid in public. However now, he says his press card is typically extra of a legal responsibility than a safety.
Newsreel: On-line assaults and media assaults, authorized harassment, makes an attempt at company takeovers and threats of franchise shutdowns.
Halla Mohieddeen: This month, Jonathan discovered himself at a wake for a colleague who was murdered. His title was Percival Mabasa, recognized on air as Percy Lapid.
Newsreel: He was a staunch critic of the Marcos and Duterte administrations.
Newsreel: A few of his listeners even contemplating him a hero.
Halla Mohieddeen: Now, journalists are questioning simply how a lot of their subsequent chapter will likely be written in blood. I’m Halla Mohieddeen, and that is The Take.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Harassment. Misinformation. Mistrust within the media. It’s a narrative that’s enjoying out all around the world now, however the Philippines has been a bellwether for a very long time. When Rodrigo Duterte turned president, his antagonism for journalists was well-known. That is him quickly earlier than getting into workplace in 2016, saying not all journalists are “exempted from assassination”.
Rodrigo Duterte: Simply because you're a journalist, you aren't exempted from assassination in case you are a son of a b**ch.
Halla Mohieddeen: Duterte left workplace earlier this 12 months, and the brand new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has up to now had a much less antagonistic relationship with the press. However there are many causes to be cautious, and Percy Lapid’s loss of life on October 3 underscored why. We heard from his youthful brother, Roy Mabasa, who’s additionally a journalist.
Roy Mabasa: My brother Percy was a hard-hitting commentator with listeners all around the world via his programme Lapid Fireplace, which was concurrently aired on radio and thru livestreaming on Fb. He was assassinated by motorcycle-riding males on the night time of October 3, 2022, whereas he was on his technique to his studio in Las Piñas Metropolis, some 22km (13.7 miles) south of the capital, Manila. We nonetheless don’t know the mastermind. I, as a journalist myself, don’t really feel secure. Lots of my colleagues concern for his or her security because the Philippines has really turn into one of the vital harmful nations for journalists.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Jonathan de Santos, who you heard from initially of this episode, has been serving to to steer journalists’ efforts in opposition to these threats.
Jonathan de Santos: I’m chairperson of the Nationwide Union of Journalists of the Philippines. I’m additionally a information editor at philstar.com. That’s a information web site in Manila.
Halla Mohieddeen: And the place are you talking to us from?
Jonathan de Santos: Nicely, I’m in Taguig. It’s one of many cities in Metro Manila. It’s a metropolis close to the place Percy was shot.
Halla Mohieddeen: We’re speaking to you at present as a result of clearly we’re wanting to listen to about Percy Lapid. Is it honest to say he was actually fairly well-known?
Jonathan de Santos: He had fairly the next, and a whole lot of his listeners, because it seems, they’re extra like senior residents, aged listeners. They listened to him at night time earlier than going to mattress, like he turned a part of their routine.
Halla Mohieddeen: Did you have got any older kin who listened to Percy Lapid?
Jonathan de Santos: My dad, nicely, he has handed on, however he listened to a whole lot of AM radio, so Percy Lapid was one among his staple programmes.
[LAPID FIRE THEME PLAYING]
Jonathan de Santos: He had a unique charisma as a result of he talked like an everyday particular person. He simply spoke in plain language, so I feel that was a part of his attraction.
Halla Mohieddeen: Yeah, for certain. Individuals admire that, don’t they?
Jonathan de Santos: Sure, truly after we went to his wake, the general public there, they weren’t household, they weren’t media – a whole lot of them had been truly listeners.
Newsreel: Household, associates and supporters accompanied his stays in a procession from the funeral residence to his closing resting place.
Jonathan de Santos: They had been carrying shirts calling for justice for his case. So, yeah, it was a giant crowd, truly, at his wake.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: It’s nonetheless not recognized why Percy Lapid was killed. On October 18, one suspect within the homicide who was caught on tape surrendered to the police.
Newsreel: Authorities say he surrendered on Monday. Because the alleged gunman, he ratted out his supposed cohorts.
Halla Mohieddeen: Who gave the order to kill Lapid continues to be unclear. However the video proof suggests the hit was well-prepared-for.
Jonathan de Santos: They noticed one among them, strolling up and down the road the place Percy could be passing, so it looks like they actually cased his space simply earlier than the hit. It means that it’s premeditated and that they actually ready for him.
Halla Mohieddeen: Crikey. His loss of life was stunning for a number of causes, actually. What stood out to you?
Jonathan de Santos: Nicely, as somebody from Metro Manila, we haven’t actually had a journalist get killed in Manila for a very long time. I’ve been in information for 13, 14 years – I don’t keep in mind the final time that that has occurred. Many of the dangers are exterior the capital, so for that to occur in an city centre, it’s actually a trigger for concern for us who stay right here.
Halla Mohieddeen: The homicide of Percy Lapid didn’t occur in a vacuum.
Newsreel: All of the newsroom assaults occur on this extremely charged political local weather the place state propaganda, boosted by trolls and click on farms, systematically goal dissent.
Halla Mohieddeen: The nation’s largest TV station, ABS-CBN, has been taken off TV airwaves when it was shut down by the Duterte administration after the Congress didn't renew its permits in 2020.
Newsreel: Duterte accuses the community of swindling, claiming ABS-CBN didn't present his political advertisements in the course of the 2016 marketing campaign season, regardless that these had been already paid for.
Halla Mohieddeen: One other main information web site, Rappler, has been tied up in a minimum of seven court docket instances since 2018. If Rappler loses its appeals, it is going to be shut down, and its co-founder, Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa, additionally faces a cumulative sentence of 100 years in jail. That is her talking about Rappler in Oslo final month.
Maria Ressa: We determined to maintain going as a result of we’re not violating something within the structure, so day by day we go to work, and we’re unsure whether or not we are going to get shut down that day. And on the identical time, as a result of we’re doing nicely, I’m making an attempt to recruit folks to an organization that will or might not get shut down. It’s type of a wierd place to be.
Halla Mohieddeen: That’s simply the media panorama, not the bodily threats.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Was it like this once you first began out in journalism, or is it fairly totally different?
Jonathan de Santos: Nicely, in fact, there has all the time been some stress between media and authorities. I imply, that’s the character of the work that we do.
Halla Mohieddeen: In fact, yeah.
Jonathan de Santos: However the Duterte administration actually went full power on mainly discrediting the media, telling folks that they shouldn’t belief us or that we’re working in opposition to the federal government, so, yeah, there was much more harassment in recent times than beforehand.
Halla Mohieddeen: The rhetoric has infected a state of affairs that was already risky. Since 1986 when the Philippines returned to democracy after years of dictatorship, practically 200 journalists have been killed for doing their jobs, and their instances have hardly ever been delivered to justice.
Jonathan de Santos: Like when Percy was killed, there have been some feedback saying that he deserved it, and mainly, the previous few years have been one large chilling impact on media. We’re fortunate to nonetheless be capable to push previous that and preserve reporting, however a whole lot of our colleagues have left the business, have left journalism, particularly after the Might elections. In order that’s the type of influence that the surroundings that they’re engaged on has on the neighborhood.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Simply earlier than Percy Lapid was killed, he spoke out on a problem that goes hand in hand with press freedom. Within the Philippines, it’s often called red-tagging or redbaiting.
Jonathan de Santos: Crimson-tagging is mainly labelling anybody you don’t like – however typically journalists, human rights employees, civil society folks – as communists and as communist rebels. Mainly, virtually reflexively, individuals who communicate out in opposition to the federal government are labelled as communists.
Halla Mohieddeen: Communist rebels have been preventing for many years in an armed battle that’s claimed 30,000 lives, so the label is a harsh highlight.
Jonathan de Santos: The federal government has stepped up its marketing campaign in opposition to the rebels since round 2017, and it has tended to equate dissent and criticism with truly taking over arms, for instance, in opposition to the federal government.
Halla Mohieddeen: In September, a decide blocked a authorities petition to declare the Communist Social gathering and its guerrilla wing a “terrorist organisation”. The decide was promptly red-tagged herself.
Jonathan de Santos: Individuals who have been red-tagged have been arrested. Some have been harassed. Some have been killed. Mainly, there's a concern that if I report on points, for instance, about human rights or about land disputes, there's a threat that that is likely to be construed as aiding terrorism or collaborating in terrorism itself.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: As Jonathan talked about, the difficulty goes far past journalists. Even a Catholic nun has been red-tagged after she criticised Maria Ressa’s conviction for cyber-libel.
Jonathan de Santos: A nun, like, she’s in her 80s, I feel, and mainly, they stated that she’s a communist chief. There is no such thing as a proof to that. She truly works for a faculty. So, yeah, now we have nuns below investigation for allegedly financing “terrorism”. It’s simply that’s how careless the red-tagging has been.
Halla Mohieddeen: The federal government has defended the apply. The Philippines’ justice minister stated earlier this month in Geneva about red-tagging, “If you happen to can dish it out, it's best to be capable to take it. That, for me, might be the essence of democracy.”
Jonathan de Santos: The federal government says they’re not doing it – they’re simply telling the reality, for instance, about activist teams. However there is no such thing as a credible proof to indicate that activist teams are linked to the Communist Social gathering or that they’re linked to the armed rebel in components of the Philippines. And sadly, there are individuals who consider the propaganda. There are individuals who consider that anybody who disagrees with authorities may very well be a “terrorist”. So yeah, that’s the type of factor that we’re working below now.
Carlos Conde: I feel it’s an understatement to say that it’s not an excellent surroundings to practise journalism.
Halla Mohieddeen: Carlos Conde is the senior Philippines researcher at Human Rights Watch and a former journalist himself. And he says deaths like Percy Lapid’s match into a protracted historical past.
Carlos Conde: Really, within the area, I imply, in Southeast Asia, the Philippines in all probability has one of many freest press. We don’t have prior restraint on this nation, in contrast to in lots of different locations.
Halla Mohieddeen: Carlos is referring to different restrictions within the area, equivalent to Thailand’s lese-majeste regulation, which limits what could be stated in regards to the royal household.
Carlos Conde: And that’s good. I imply, the issue solely turns into when folks resolve to take motion in opposition to you by way of reprisals. The issue is all the time reprisals. You understand, journalists within the Philippines are so courageous that the specter of loss of life or the specter of bodily hurt are usually not stopping them from doing their jobs. And, you understand, this type of custom [goes] manner again.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Persons are watching the present battles for press freedom, however they could not realise it’s a really lengthy warfare. One which goes again to the time of the present president’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Newsreel: Marcos Sr’s rule was marked by enforced disappearances, torture and police brutality. The victims quantity within the 1000's, the households they left behind much more.
Halla Mohieddeen: Marcos led the Philippines from 1965 till 1986 when he was overthrown in a democratic revolution.
Carlos Conde: When Mr Marcos – the senior, the daddy of the present president – turned president, folks had been beginning to detect some issues in the way in which the information is being manipulated or managed by the administration on the time, so a whole lot of the journalists turned vital. They began overlaying the Marcos administration rather more critically, in order that when Marcos declared martial regulation in 1972, journalists had been among the many first ones to be arrested and locked up.
Halla Mohieddeen: Right here’s Marcos Sr after martial regulation was declared.
Ferdinand Marcos Sr: I've acquired tons of and tons of of telegrams from all corners of the Philippines congratulating you – and by the way, me – for the proclamation of martial regulation, for the sudden cessation of anarchy and of criminality all through the land.
Carlos Conde: The crackdown was so huge that newspapers and radio stations had been shut down. There have been some who remained, however they had been managed or cowed by the regime, so the knowledge on the time actually was severely restricted to regardless of the dictatorship and the household of Mr Marcos wished to unfold.
Halla Mohieddeen: But it surely additionally gave start to a brand new type of journalism, one which operated guerrilla-style to show the Marcos dictatorship.
Carlos Conde: You understand, the human rights violation, the arrest and torture and homicide of activists, the famine that was taking place in some locations within the nation, and all these unsavoury occasions that passed off.
Halla Mohieddeen: It was often called the mosquito press. If you happen to’ve ever heard in regards to the president’s spouse, Imelda Marcos, and her 1000's of sneakers found after the revolution, it was the mosquito press who stung her first with stories of her lavish excesses.
Carlos Conde: They might swoop in on the topic, you understand, chunk the topic and fly away after which do the identical factor one other time, in order that they turned this pesky, you understand, bunch of journalists. And so, you understand, from this historical past, after 1986, it rose from there. There was this type of revival of actually good Philippine journalism after Marcos was ousted and in order that type of was the context of the start of a extremely rambunctiously free Philippine press.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Carlos Conde: Now we have a really proud custom of competent, brave journalism on this nation, and seeing what’s taking place now, it’s actually heartbreaking.
Halla Mohieddeen: And now there’s a brand new Marcos in energy. After the break, what that legacy means for journalists at present.
[BREAK]
Halla Mohieddeen: To know the surroundings at present for journalists within the Philippines, I requested Jonathan de Santos what he’s been seeing.
Halla Mohieddeen: Now into all of this comes the brand new president, who’s the son of the previous president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Newsreel: The brand new president praised the legacy of his father, Ferdinand Marcos, for carrying out many issues. He promised to emulate him.
Halla Mohieddeen: What are the fears now about that legacy of press freedom? Is any of that one thing you suppose might occur once more within the Philippines?
Jonathan de Santos: I feel by way of coverage, he’s smoother. He talks higher, however by way of motion, there hasn’t actually been a change.
Halla Mohieddeen: And Jonathan observed it in Marcos Jr’s response to Percy Lapid’s homicide.
Jonathan de Santos: In response to the Percy Lapid killing, he stated – nicely, the palace stated he was involved about it and that he wished a fast investigation, however he hasn’t stated something straight about it. He attended an oath-taking for a journalist group, and he didn’t even point out the case. The killing was very contemporary, and it was on everybody’s thoughts, and I feel that’s what you had been ready for, that he would say that, nicely, you understand, journalists shouldn’t be killed.
So it doesn’t actually ship the sign that the rhetoric in opposition to journalists ought to cease or that assaults in opposition to journalists ought to cease. And once more, he involves energy after Duterte, who had ABS-CBN taken off the air, who had – mainly, whose authorities workplaces filed instances in opposition to Rappler. So mainly, these precedents are already there. There hasn’t been any indication that that’s going to occur, however I suppose realizing that the assaults on media have been accomplished and that they are often accomplished once more, it provides to the entire chilling impact that we’re making an attempt to work in opposition to.
Halla Mohieddeen: So it’s a type of concern in the back of the minds of the information organisations themselves?
Jonathan de Santos: Proper. As a result of he additionally has the backing of the largest political households and most political events. Additionally the 31 million voters who elected him into workplace.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Newsreel: One of many causes Marcos received the election is a large social media disinformation marketing campaign that whitewashed his father’s report.
Jonathan de Santos: There’s a extremely enormous mandate, and I don’t suppose media house owners could be keen to threat his wrath at this level.
Halla Mohieddeen: However because the Philippines heads into this new Marcos period, Jonathan says what he's seeing is a rising understanding amongst his colleagues that journalists have to stay collectively within the face of these forces.
Jonathan de Santos: When the assaults in opposition to Rappler and ABS-CBN occurred, they noticed that as one thing that was taking place to another person, one thing to report about, however not likely one thing that would influence them. Now, I feel it’s clearer that if it’s riskier for one among us, then it’s riskier for all of us.
Halla Mohieddeen: Jonathan says folks have seen the Philippines as a warning in regards to the dangers of misinformation and distrusting the media for years, however he says the bodily threats needs to be a warning too.
Jonathan de Santos: We’re dwelling in a rustic the place mainly, vital reporting is seen as making an attempt to carry down the federal government, and it’s a scary place to be. I’m hoping that it received’t be a standard state of affairs for journalists, so possibly the Philippines can be a warning within the sense of press freedom and journalist security. Our state of affairs might additionally occur elsewhere. So, I suppose, take your classes from the place we are actually and take a look at to not find yourself the place we are actually.
Halla Mohieddeen: And that’s The Take. This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke, with Chloe Okay Li, Ruby Zaman, Ashish Malhotra, Amy Walters, Negin Owliaei and me, Halla Mohieddeen. Alex Roldan is our sound designer. Aya Emileik and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. And Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Episode credit:
This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Chloe Okay. Li and our host, Halla Mohieddeen. It was fact-checked by Ruby Zaman.
Our manufacturing staff consists of Chloe Okay. Li, Alexandra Locke, Ashish Malhotra, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters and Ruby Zaman. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Post a Comment