MANILA – The Philippines remains a “dangerous” workplace for reporters, especially for radio journalists, as it landed in the top list of countries with the “worst records” on prosecuting killers of journalists, according to a New York-based media watchdog.
In the 2023 Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Philippines ranked eighth, which the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) saw as a “slight improvement” but not something deserving of praise.
The Philippines last year landed on the seventh spot on the index but for this year, its ranking went down by only one point after the entry of Haiti on the list.
“The slight improvement to 8th from 7th on the Global Impunity Index is small comfort for journalists in the Philippines,” NUJP chairperson Jonathan de Santos told the Inquirer.
First on the list for this year’s impunity index is Syria, followed by Somalia, Haiti, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico and then the Philippines.
Next to the Philippines are Myanmar, Brazil, Pakistan and India.
The Philippines, together with Somalia, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan and India, have been topping the impunity index “every year since its inception,” the CPJ said in its report.
The New York-based organization explained that the “failure” to prosecute killers of slain journalists have ranged from conflict to corruption. (Dempsey Reyes © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
