Attacks on the Press in 1998 - Philippines

As of December 31, 1998

Philippine politics took a comic-opera turn in May when action-movie star and avowed philanderer Joseph Estrada won the presidential election. Former First Lady Imelda Marcos emerged from political oblivion, claiming in December that far from being world-class kleptocrats, she and her late husband had legitimately amassed some $12 billion in assets during their 21 years in power. "We own practically everything in the country," she declared in an interview with The Philippine Inquirer newspaper. She has filed suit to try to recover the presumed assets.

In many other countries such shenanigans might be cause for political instability, but in the Philippines, with its rollicking democracy and perhaps the freest press in Asia, a skeptical public has access to dozens of news sources with little government interference. The open public discourse has strengthened the country's democratic institutions.

Since the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the free press has become so well entrenched that many analysts credit it with shielding the country from the worst effects of the Asian economic crisis by making economic information widely available to investors. And despite the economic crisis and shrinking revenues, newspapers are expanding, with some 20 new tabloids opening in the last year and several mainstream dailies adding color pages and new editions in a bid to capture readers.

Along with a free press can come danger, however, and in 1998 outspoken radio commentator Rey Bancayrin was murdered in rural Zamboanga City while he was on the air at station DXLL. Thirty-two journalists have been murdered in the line of duty since the restoration of democracy in 1986. Almost all of the murders are unsolved.

Responding to the ethical challenges of a free press and the need to protect journalists from harm on both a national and a regional basis, Filipino journalists played a leading role in the founding of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) in Bangkok in November. "We can learn from one another and draw strength from each other throughout Southeast Asia," said Melinda de Jesus, the executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, one of SEAPA's founding organizations.

Attacks on the Press in Philippines in 1998