Press Freedom Day past and present

World Press Freedom Day on May 3, marked the 30th year since the United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared it as such. The first World Press Freedom Day was launched in London in 1993.

Filipino journalists also mark that date but years before, we had chosen a special date for solemn and out-of-the-box gatherings to mark National Press Freedom Day. That was Aug. 30, the birth anniversary of Marcelo H. del Pilar, also known as Plaridel, his pen name.

A journalist, writer, and lawyer, Del Pilar, along with Jose Rizal and Graciano Lopez Jaena were leaders of the reform movement in Spain. Del Pilar succeeded Lopez Jaena as editor of the biweekly publication “La Solidaridad” so named after a group of Filipino liberals exiled in Spain in the 1890s.

Our National Press Freedom Day events and gatherings during the dark days of Marcos’ martial rule were our way of showing up, to bond, to make ourselves feel safe, and check on one another. There was safety in numbers and face-to-face meetings. The venue was often the National Press Club (NPC) by the Pasig River. Its smoky restaurant, with its Manansala murals (now gone), was a haven for besieged, beleaguered, and endangered journalists. Its sinigang and binagoongan were unforgettable, beer was a staple. Of course, we knew that the walls had ears.

Plaridel Hall, on the top floor, (named after Del Pilar) was the venue for airing fears and concerns, protests, and planning activities, the building’s life-threatening elevator notwithstanding. Men and women in the field of law and letters had spoken there, among them former senator Jose W. Diokno, Nick Joaquin, and Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc.

I have not been there in a long while and have not kept abreast with NPC membership. (I remember that election of officers was held around this time.) The NPC ID card served as some kind of safety pass during that time but not an absolute guarantee for some of us who would experience the grip of the iron hand.

I write this piece on the eve of the World Press Freedom Day event at the UN headquarters in New York, which I hope to watch via the internet. This year’s theme is “‘Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights,’ (a working title) signifying the enabling element of freedom of expression to enjoy and protect all other human rights.”

Speaking ahead of the event hosted by Unesco, UN secretary general António Guterres praised the work of journalists and media workers. Said he in a video message: “This day highlights a basic truth: all our freedom depends on press freedom. Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy and justice. It gives all of us the facts we need to shape opinions and speak truth to power. And as this year’s theme reminds us, press freedom represents the very lifeblood of human rights.”

Guterres raised problems in the journalism industry, among them, stringent regulations, censorship, and threats to freedom of expression. “Journalists and media workers are directly targeted on and offline as they carry out their vital work. They are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained, and imprisoned … for doing their jobs.”

The event’s website provided quotes on press freedom from notable personalities, but we have voices from our own.

Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, “Who elected the press?” (censored, 1981): “By the fundamental law of the land, the press has the right, the authority, the moral obligation, the duty to ask questions, to dig up facts and winnow facts from fiction and present them to the public in the free market of ideas, to hold up a mirror to society reflecting both the potholes as well as the smooth concrete highways …”

National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, “The writer in the climate of fear,” 1983: “The proposition that literature is automatically free, because written in the light of eternity, while journalism is necessarily enslaved to the concerns of the moment—that proposition is false … No more than other republics can the Republic of Letters exist half-slave and half-free. While his brothers in journalism are in thrall, the creative writer is himself not whole, not safe, and not free.”

Former NPC chair Antonio Ma. Nieva in detention, 1983: “I am firmly lodged in a cell with barred windows. I who have never lifted a hand against another man in anger, who cannot even butcher a chicken for the pity I feel for it. Whose millions did I steal? How many did I massacre that I should be penned up like this?”

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