LABAN NG MASA CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON PRESS FREEDOM

0ⁿReports of the skyrocketing prices and transportation costs from the effects of TRAIN; News of the daily commuter’s frustration over the lack of jeepneys to ride home from the faulty execution of the PUV Modernization Program; The PDP-Laban Charter Change proposal bound to plunge millions more into poverty at the hands of local dynasties and warlords spreading on online news sites, shared by thousands;

There is no better time for a threatened tyrant to use censorship as a weapon than now, when the Filipino people are beginning to gather voices of anger over the collapse of Duterte’s promises. The ruling to revoke the SEC registration of the online news site Rappler, together with the threat of closing down 30 radio stations in Davao City and the plunder cases against the previous owners of Philippine Daily Inquirer are but the latest episodes of Duterte’s attacks on voices that openly broadcast truths he would rather keep hidden.

Striking news agencies with the “rule of law” exposes the violent inequality of law in these attacks: decrying partial foreign ownership of Rappler while allowing full foreign ownership under the proposed ChaCha, plunder raps against non-payment of taxes while promoting tax exemptions for government officials also under ChaCha. The strikedown on Rappler and other major news agencies are signals to the rest of all journalists and news agencies, including alternative media outlets, to censor themselves in exposing many more of these ironies or else cease to exist at all.

Laban ng Masa condemns this alarming crusade of the Duterte administration on the freedom of the press and all the freedoms linked to its exercise. More than being a fundamental right enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, a free press is gravely necessary to ensure spaces for critical perspectives and alternatives in the context of disillusionment with a populist agenda and a creeping dictatorship.

As Oplan Tokhang continues its War on the Poor and the effects of a botched economic program hits the most vulnerable sectors, it is clear that the marginalized are among the first victims of tyranny. Silencing the press will only function to suppress this reality. In this context, there is no space for the separation of civil and political rights from the economic. Marx once remarked that “the absence of freedom of the press makes all other freedoms illusory.” While Laban ng Masa believes that the threats of censorship and authoritarianism will always be present as long as there are truths of inequality and elite rule to be hidden from the people, a climate of fear cannot truly be the foundation for winning the battle against the climate of want.

Laban ng Masa calls to #DefendPressFreedom and the people’s hard-won democratic rights. We enjoin everyone to join the protest tonight at 6PM at the Boy Scout Circle, Timog Ave. Quezon City. As the battle for press freedom is a crucial part of our struggle for a more radical, egalitarian, and participatory democracy; together with the Filipino press, we will hold the line.