2 days Ago By Claudine Flores
DESPITE a report of no Filipino journalists killed in 2024, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Cebu chapter underscored the need for continued vigilance in protecting press freedom, citing several factors that may have influenced the data. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently announced that 2024 was the first time in two decades that no journalist was killed in the Philippines. However, the NUJP Cebu cautioned that this does not necessarily indicate an improvement in press freedom.
The NUJP Cebu pointed to several possible reasons behind the report, including (1) a lack of local reporting on similar cases, (2) mechanisms that reduce risks, such as safety training, and (3) outright censorship of critical reporting to minimize threats, among other factors. “The Philippines, including Cebu, is in the 9th place of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 Global Impunity Index Rankings. This means that we are still on the top of the list of countries that let the killing of journalists go unpunished,” the NUJP Cebu told SunStar Cebu.
Other challenges NUJP Cebu also highlighted the challenges faced by journalists, including bullying and public humiliation by local politicians, as well as economic hardships that push many media workers out of the industry. “Active participation and membership in media rights organizations are vital in advancing the rights of journalists and press freedom,” NUJP Cebu said, underscoring the importance of equipping journalists with safety training, ethical journalism workshops, and equipping reporters with information and tools pertaining to on-field press safety. The NUJP Cebu chapter also reaffirmed its commitment to providing media safety training and collaborating with local news outlets and campus publications to strengthen journalist protection.
“We provide media safety trainings, ethical journalism workshops, and peer support sessions for journalists. More of these we hope to collaborate with local outlets and campus publications on future projects,” Nujp Cebu said. Meanwhile, CPJ’s report, released on February 12, 2025, listed the Philippines as one of six countries that remained “consistently deadly” for journalists from 1998 to 2024, with a total of 147 work-related or potentially work-related journalist deaths.
The country remains ranked ninth in CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, meaning that many journalist killings remain unresolved. Globally, CPJ recorded 124 journalist killings in 2024, the highest in more than 30 years, with nearly two-thirds of the deaths involving Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces. NUJP Cebu called for true justice for murdered journalists and an end to violence against media workers, emphasizing that the fight for press freedom continues.
“We’re calling for true justice: the resolution of thousands of cases of murdered media men and women and the end to the continuous acts of violence perpetrated by corrupt forces against those that shed light on the truth,” the NUJP Cebu said. / CDF.
