The freedom to uphold the truth is at the heart of true
democracy 
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
Freedom of speech, freedom of the press and to be free to protect every person, respect human rights and be free from the threat and danger of death are the most fundamental sacred rights supposedly, safeguarded by a democratic nation.
In dictatorship, these rights and freedoms are immediately wiped out. In a crumbling constantly under attack, the right and duty to speak out and stand by the vulnerable and the downtrodden are the prime duties of every adult person with means to do so. In the United States those values were under threat and pressure by the Bush administration working with a compliant republican controlled congress and senate. They passed stringent laws that restricted the freedom of privacy, speech and activism for human rights.
It was the resilience of the non-compromised press that helped save what was left of the dignity of the American. The free press courageously exposed the shadowy tycoons and a corrupt military-industrial complex that grabbed the puppet strings of government and had a president dancing to their self-serving tunes.
The liberal centrist media in the United States was at first branded unpatriotic. They were shouted down by the right wing media that slavishly supported the repressive measures of the Bush administration without question, shame or thought. The corruption and sexual perversion by a few republican representatives in the US congress and the senate was eventually exposed and they and President Bush got their thumping and comeuppance from the American voters. Hurray for a decent democracy!
But for us, in the Philippines, the essential freedom of speech and freedom of the press and all to have a life of security and peace is far from us. The international business community in an unprecedented statement called on the Government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to end the killings of political activists’ human rights. Even the assassinations of church pastors including the brutal killing of an outspoken Anglican Bishop have not been solved. Political murders have no place in a democracy, the business community said. The point being that the Philippines has hardly ever had a real democracy. The ruling elite families that cling to power and fight over it are in constant fear of an uprising of the masses of impoverished Filipinos.
Whether it is led by the left or the middle class in what could be a non-violent people’s power movement, that unseated tyrants in the past, it is feared and repressed. The escalating campaign of assassinations is an indication of the insecurity of the 200 or so vastly wealthy families that control the congress and industry and lord it over 86 million poor people.
Freedom of the press is under constant pressure. 62 Journalists have been murdered by assassins since 1986. Twenty six of them were killed in last few years. A few hit men were apprehended, none of the political masterminds have even been named.
I and my staff at the Preda children’s rights center have been sued many times for libel for exposing the sexual and physical abuse of children in prison or the trafficking of children by the sex mafia. The latest libel charges I am facing is for accompanying the ITV (CNN) reporter Chris Rogers into the prisons of Metro Manila where he filmed children, youths and adults in the same cells and the horrific conditions they endure. In another case, the prosecutor filed the complaint in court without giving my staff and I the right of a preliminary hearing, a chance to present our side. He got an arrest warrant issued right away.
The Philippines is one of the few countries where libel is still a
criminal offence and is seen by some as a repressive gag on the media.
43 journalists, writers, editors have been slapped with libel charges by
the husband of the president. Yet in the ongoing climate of
assassinations and fear, the brave and courageous Filipino journalists
are still proclaiming the truth and are willing to die for it. And too
many so far have made that ultimate sacrifice.
