Grace Poe: Strengthen efforts to end Media killings

Sen. Grace Poe has filed a resolution calling for a review of government efforts to end media violence in the country.

"Media killings have no place in a democratic country like the Philippines," said Poe in her Senate Resolution (SR) No. 533.

SR 533 urges the Senate committee on public information and mass media and the committee on justice and human rights to inquire into government interventions to address media killings and protect journalists.

France-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) ranked the country 149th out of 180 countries in its Global Press Freedom Index for 2014.

"The country's current press freedom situation must be seriously addressed in elevating democracy in the country," Poe said.

Twelve media practitioners were killed in the Philippines in 2013 alone, amounting to at least 72 deaths since 1992, according to non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.

In 2009, 32 journalists were among the 58 who were kidnapped and massacred in what is now known as the "Maguindanao Massacre," denounced as the single-most horrifying incident of violence against the media. The case remains pending in court.