Last night, hundreds of journalists and members of New York's press freedom community met at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan for the Committee to Protect Journalists' XXI annual International Press Freedom Awards. At the event--celebrating the extraordinary courage of five journalists from across the globe--guests and award recipients unanimously expressed their commitment to fighting impunity in the murders of journalists.
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Jose Pavia, a veteran journalist and tireless
press freedom advocate, died on April 18 in the Philippines. Pavia, known simply as "JLP" among his
friends and journalist colleagues, was a key partner in CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity.
He was 72 and had been battling cancer.
This afternoon we sent out a press release announcing a $100,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity. The campaign enters its third year in 2011, having achieved some significant successes, including high-level commitment to prosecute the killers of journalist in the Philippines and Russia. Our goal in the year ahead is to turn those commitments into results.
Police in the southern Philippine
November 23 marked both an evening of celebration of the courageous and remembrance of the slain: CPJ's annual International Press Freedom Awards fell on the exact one-year anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines, the deadliest attack on the press ever recorded in CPJ history.
Tuesday is the anniversary of the deadliest attack on the press ever recorded by CPJ. On
November 23, 2009, 32 journalists and media workers were shot and killed in a
massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan, in the southern province of Maguindanao. The
victims were part of a convoy accompanying the supporters and relatives of a
local politician filing candidacy papers in the provincial govenrnor's race.
Leo Dacera, a senior state prosecutor and head of the witness protection program for the Philippine Department of Justice, died suddenly on November 4. Initial news reports said Dacera, 54, left, was the victim of an apparent heart attack. Dacera's untimely death is a tremendous blow to all those seeking to end the culture of impunity in Philippine journalist murders.
About 18 hours after eight hostages and the gunmen holding
them in a tourist bus were killed in a shootout with
police in the heart of Manila, officials broke away from the demands of the
moment to meet with a CPJ delegation in the president's offices at Malacañang
Palace. Justice
Secretary Leila de Lima was also scheduled to attend, but she was laid up
in the hospital, suffering from pneumonia and exhaustion. With the ugly
resolution of the hostage situation--it happened less than a mile from Malacañang--President
Benigno Aquino understandably had pressing matters to attend to.
Today marks nine months since the Maguindanao massacre, the deadliest event for the press that CPJ has ever recorded. On November 23, 2009, at 10 a.m., a convoy traveling to the provincial capital of Shariff Aquak to file gubernatorial candidacy papers stopped at what appeared to be a routine military checkpoint. Hours later, authorities would find the bodies of 57 people, among them 32 journalists and media workers, who had been executed and their bodies dumped 3 kilometers from the main road.
A judge's decision today to set a September 1 trial date for several defendants in the Maguindanao massacre highlights a positive development in what has been a very ugly story. The judge appeared determined to move the case forward and, for now, seemed able to keep the large legal teams in line.
Quezon City Regional Trial Court Justice Jocelyn Solis-Reyes needed only 45 minutes to set a no-nonsense tone for a case that is going to be closely watched in the Philippines and around the world. Recently elected President Benigno Aquino and his justice secretary, Leila de Lima, have made it clear that they grasp the importance of building a dynamic legal system to match their aspirations for national growth. De Lima has been calling the Maguindanao trial a "litmus test" for a Philippines judicial system that has been known for extended delays and pervasive conflict of interest.
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