PTFoMS: PH ranking on CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index ‘expected’

The CPJ cited 13 countries where “criminal groups, politicians, government officials, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical and investigative reporting,” and among these, the Philippines ranked fifth. (Pixabay photo)

The Presidential Task Force in Media Security (PTFoMS) was not surprised after learning that the Philippines retained its spot in the 2019 Global Impunity Index (GII) of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The report, according to the CPJ, “spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free.”

The CPJ cited 13 countries where “criminal groups, politicians, government officials, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical and investigative reporting,” and among these, the Philippines ranked fifth.

“The CPJ report is not surprising and was actually expected,” PTFoMS Executive Director Joel Sy Egco said on Tuesday, October 29.

“In fact, we have been anticipating that because for as long as the massacre case remains in the equation, following the methodology used by CPJ, we shall remain on that list,” he added.

Since the report covered a 10-year period, Egco said the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre, where 32 journalists were killed, is not out of the equation. The CPJ earlier considered the massacre as “one of the deadliest single events for the press in memory.”

Once suspects are convicted or if the CPJ report period covered August 2010 up to August 2020, Egco said he is confident that the massacre case will not be included in the equation.

“We are looking at a much better and improved ranking for the Philippines,” he said.

“At this time, we are clarifying with CPJ some gray areas in their methodology, such as the inclusion in their list of cases that were deemed not related to media work,” he continued.

Egco further said the PTFoMS will “relentlessly act on all cases of violence, threats or murders of media workers.”

Apart from ranking fifth on the list of the 13 world’s worst impunity offenders, the Philippines also has the largest number of unsolved journalist killings with 41.

It was Somalia that ranked first in the 2019 World Impunity Index, followed by Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan.

Afghanistan landed in the sixth place, followed by Mexico, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria, and India.