The calendar options cartoons illustrating notable occasions, together with the killings and harassment of media practitioners in Zamboanga del Norte for the reason that Martial Legislation years
DIPOLOG, Philippines – A printing firm in Dipolog Metropolis has taken on the duty of holding alive the battle for press freedom in a spot the place journalists and activists have lengthy confronted threats and violence.
Younger Printing Press has launched its 2025 Defend Press Freedom calendar, designed not solely to mark the passage of time however to remind its group of the struggles which have formed their press freedom, and why folks in Zamboanga del Norte have to proceed supporting unrestricted media.
The calendar options cartoons depicting the province’s struggles to guard press freedom.
“It’s our humble means of reminding everybody the very important function of freedom of speech in our democracy,” stated human rights lawyer Anecito Younger, proprietor of Younger Printing Press, which additionally revealed the weekly Press Freedom.
“Our Defend Press Freedom calendar ought to educate us by no means to neglect those that perished, harassed, or those that have been threatened whereas performing their duties to tell the general public and to offer voice to those that haven’t any means to be heard,” he stated.
The calendar options cartoons illustrating notable occasions, together with the killings and harassment of media practitioners in Zamboanga del Norte, from the Martial Legislation period to the current.
Clo D. Acis, a retired fireman, instructed Rappler on Tuesday, January 21: “Tinuod tong gipresentar nga cartoons sa kalendaryo, nahitabo to sa Dipolog ug sa laing mga lugar sa probinsiya. Dili to angay kalimtan, dili angay nga moundang ta sa pakigbisog tungod kay mura nag naapil sa atong sistema ang pagyatak sa tawhanong katungod.”
(All these introduced within the cartoons are true; they occurred in Dipolog and different elements of the province. We must always not neglect these occasions. We must always not cease our struggles as a result of the systemic violation of human rights appears ingrained in our system.)
Apart from direct killings and harassment of journalists, legal professionals, and others, “equally evil corruption” persists, Acis stated.
He pointed to “authorized actions that fund officers’ propaganda efforts, purchase votes, and exploit poverty and the newly created ‘ayuda mentality.’”
The cartoons function reminders on unsolved killings, together with the murders of Mindanao Observer editor Jacobo Amatong and columnist Zorro Aguilar on September 23, 1984; lawyer Ferdinand Reyes, editor-in-chief of Press Freedom, on February 13, 1996; and DXAA radio commentator Klein Cantoneros on Might 4, 2005.
One other incident depicted is the alleged abuse of press freedom in the course of the interval when Colonel Reynaldo Maclang served as Dipolog chief of police and commander of the police’s 102nd Cellular Firm, or from 2010 to 2017.
The native police beneath Maclang, who served in Dipolog in the course of the administration of former mayor Evelyn Tang-Uy, was broadly accused of orchestrating assaults on media practitioners’ properties, radio stations, and workplaces, together with the editorial workplace of Press Freedom.
One cartoon reveals Maclang and his officers barging into the DXFL radio sales space on Might 3, 2013, World Press Freedom Day. Police arrested commentator Rodolfo Tanquis with out a warrant whereas he was on-air. Tanquis was allegedly focused for criticizing police failures to resolve extrajudicial killings in Dipolog and the cities of Polanco and Sindangan.
The weekly Press Freedom started as Dipolog Additional in 1981, 9 years after Martial Legislation was declared by the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos. Younger recalled that interval as one marked by political repression, financial hardships, and suppression of the press.
Newspapers in Dipolog have been shut down after Martial Legislation was declared and have been solely allowed to renew beneath Marcos’ Nationwide Media Manufacturing Heart (NMPC).
To take care of his newspaper’s independence, Younger refused to register with NMPC. On July 1, 1982, he established Younger Printing Press for his weekly paper, later renamed Press Freedom.
Press Freedom remained a “mosquito newspaper” till the 1986 Folks Energy Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship. – Rappler.com
