The United States, which will have a new president in three weeks, has passed a law requiring the US Secretary of State to deny entry to foreign government officials who violate the rights of journalists, including Rappler CEO Maria Ressa in the Philippines.
This is provided under the US government spending bill that outgoing President Donald Trump signed on Sunday night (Monday in Manila). He was expected to sign it a week earlier, but delayed it for still unknown reasons, raising the specter of a government shutdown.
From Malacanang, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued a statement saying the Philippines recognized the “democratic process” of any sovereign state and the country respected that sovereignty, independence, and equality.
But Roque said: “Consistent with this position, we have our own independent institutions and domestic laws that must be enforced and applied to all.”
Meanwhile, 50 journalists and media workers were killed in connection with their work in 2020, the majority in countries that are not at war, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Tuesday.
The figure shows an increase in the targeting of reporters investigating organized crime, corruption or environmental issues, the watchdog said.
It highlighted murders in Mexico, India, and Pakistan.
Eighty-four percent of those killed this year were “deliberately targeted” for their work, RSF said in its annual report, compared to 63 percent in 2019.
In a statement, Ressa’s international legal team, which includes Amal Clooney and Gallagher’s fellow barristers Can Yeginsu and Claire Overman, applauded the US legislation, saying: “We deeply appreciate US Congress’s commitment to holding accountable those in the Government of the Philippines who are persecuting her.”
Roque, however, said: “Each must learn to respect each other’s domestic policies and intrusion to another nation’s sovereignty must be frowned upon. This basic principle of international law is based on the United Nations Charter which declares, ‘The organization and its members shall act based on principle of sovereign equality of its member.’”
The explanatory statement for the US legislation directs the Secretary of State to deny entry “to foreign government officials involved in threatening, wrongfully imprisoning, or otherwise depriving of liberty independent journalists who speak out or publish about official corruption or other abuses, including Maria Ressa (of the Philippines) and El Faro in El Salvador.”
The law also applies to foreign government officials’ immediate family members.
Since January 2018, there have been 13 complaints and cases filed against Ressa as well as Rappler’s directors and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. Ressa was named as a defendant in nine criminal cases and convicted of one on June 15.
The other entity specified in the new US law, El Faro or The Lighthouse, is a digital news organization in El Salvador that has been attacked by President Nayib Bukele for reporting on his alleged corruption and his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.
“Our hope is that those who are abusing the law to extinguish press freedom in the Philippines can be persuaded to drop the unjustified charges they have brought against Ms Ressa. But if they do not relent, we will work with the United States and other concerned governments to hold the perpetrators accountable,” Clooney added.
Ressa faces nine criminal charges before Philippine courts, all filed during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“For several years now, Reporters Without Borders has noted that investigative journalists are really in the crosshairs of states, or cartels,” said Pauline Ades-Mevel, RSF editor-in-chief.
Mexico was the deadliest country, with eight killed. “Links between drug traffickers and politicians remain, and journalists who dare to cover these or related issues continue to be the targets of barbaric murders,” said the report.
None of the Mexico killings had yet been punished, added RSF, which has compiled annual data on violence against journalists around the globe since 1995.
Five journalists were killed in war-torn Afghanistan, it said, noting an increase in targeted attacks on media workers in recent months even as peace talks between the government and Taliban are ongoing.
RSF also highlighted the case of Iranian opposition figure Ruhollah Zam, who ran a popular social media channel that rallied regime opponents, and who was executed in December.
His execution “confirms Iran’s record as a country that has officially put the most journalists to death in the past half-century,” it said.
Covid whistleblowers
Ades-Mevel said RSF had also noted the “developing” trend of violence against media workers covering protests, notably in the United States following the killing of George Floyd, and in France against a controversial new security law.
The total number of journalists killed in 2020 was lower than the 53 reported in 2019, although RSF said fewer journalists worked in the field this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the first part of the report, published this month, RSF said it was concerned that measures imposed by governments to fight the pandemic had contributed to a “significant peak in violations of press freedom”.
It listed 387 jailed journalists, which it called “a historically high number”.
Fourteen of those had been arrested in connection with their coverage of the coronavirus crisis, it said.
On Monday, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who sent dispatches from Wuhan during the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak, was jailed for four years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
Chinese authorities have punished eight virus whistleblowers so far as they curb criticism of the government’s response to the outbreak.
