Philippines

The Philippine press remains among the freest in Asia. Indeed, Manila’s 25
often-raucous daily newspapers will print almost anything, including personal attacks on the most powerful figures in the country. Wary of any encroachment on democratic institutions, the press was largely responsible, according to many observers, for the success of a huge public campaign to
dissuade President Fidel V. Ramos from pushing through constitutional changes that could have allowed him to seek a second six-year term in 1998. A massive pro-democracy rally in September, led by former president Corazon Aquino, brought an estimated 500,000 people into the streets and quickly put an end to talk that Ramos might not step down.

In rural areas, however, journalists must often negotiate a fine line between military authorities, rebel groups, and powerful business interests. Since democracy was restored in 1986, 31 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in the Philippines, many of them covering local crime or rural insurgencies. The vast majority of such crimes remain unsolved.

While the country has weathered Southeast Asia’s economic woes with more aplomb than most of its neighbors, urban crime, much of it drug-related, continues to stir public outcry. Danny Hernandez, a well-known columnist and crime reporter for the tabloid People’s Tonight, was found in the back of an abandoned taxi with a bullet in the back of his head in June. Hernandez was reportedly working on an investigation linking drug dealers with the police and a well-known Manila politician.