Press Release
September 2, 2008

Press freedom repression, Loren says of journalists' arrest

Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday disagreed with the findings of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that the arrest of journalists who covered the Manila Pen siege did not "constitute repression of press freedom."

"When you bodily stop not one but practically all journalists on site from covering an event, that's denial of press freedom, no ifs no buts," said Legarda, herself a broadcast journalist before joining the Senate in 1998.

The senator, nonetheless, supported the CHR in declaring that authorities violated the journalists' rights to liberty, security of persons and freedom from arbitrary arrest.

"This episode should prompt the government to strike a much-needed balance between its exercise of police and other state powers and recognizing media's duty to keep the people informed," she stressed.

Legarda said that the arrests of the journalists sent a "chilling message" to media and may be viewed as constituting prior restraint.

"When journalists are threatened with arrest for doing their jobs, that's prior restraint or what they use to call during the martial law years as self-censorship."

The constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens should not also be trampled upon by the government, including their rights to liberty, security of persons and freedom from arbitrary arrest, Legarda said.

She noted that in the Manila Pen siege, authorities arrested journalists purportedly for "processing" or identity verification, claiming that some rebel soldiers had tried to pass themselves off as members of media.

"The end did not justify the means employed," said Legarda, adding that she found the treatment accorded the arrested journalists as dehumanizing.

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