The human rights advocates under the banner of Karapatan congratulate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on its 7th National Congress.
Your theme, "Fighting Impunity, Advancing Welfare" is very apt at a time when human rights violations are being perpetrated with brazenness and without fear of punishment. Members of the media who show the true picture of the nation are not spared from the violence of those in power who wish to advance their own personal gains.
The human rights advocates under the banner of Karapatan congratulate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on its 7th National Congress.
Your theme, "Fighting Impunity, Advancing Welfare" is very apt at a time when human rights violations are being perpetrated with brazenness and without fear of punishment. Members of the media who show the true picture of the nation are not spared from the violence of those in power who wish to advance their own personal gains.
We pay tribute to the journalists massacred on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. We pay tribute to all of your colleagues who have reported the true conditions of our country — the corruption, the poverty, the violence and the impunity — and who all lost their lives in the pursuit of their profession in spreading the truth.
NUJP’s congress with its apt theme comes at a time that renewed efforts at suppressing the people’s democratic freedoms and rights are again being imposed in the pretext of a war of terror to open up the country to unbridled plunder by foreign powers collaborating with the nation’s supposed leaders. This state of things will surely bring more poverty and oppression to our people so that in their desire to assert their rights and bring on changes in their conditions, more repressive measures may be imposed by the state. The previous regimes have enforced so-called counter-insurgency measures to stem the tide of people’s resistance.
In this time of our nation’s history, the prime superpower is intent to compel the Philippine state to implement the former’s dictates utilizing counter-insurgency measures to ensure a people’s forced compliance. We can expect our people to be subjected to more human rights violations and as media practitioners, your sector will again be called to be with the people in exposing these violations wherever it happens and whoever is involved. The media has been and will always be the major partner of human rights workers and defenders in trying to put a stop to these violations and end the impunity by which these violations are committed. In so doing, together with the people, media persons are likewise subjected to violations. On this note, we call on you to be ever vigilant, brave and daring in surmounting and overcoming these violations and side with the people in their quest for truth and justice.
Karapatan is one with you in your calls for truth, and social justice . It is through organized efforts and unity that we will overcome the enemies of truth and justice; let us therefore forge greater unity with the struggling people in asserting our democratic rights!
MABUHAY ANG NUJP! MABUHAY ANG MALAYANG PAMAMAHAYAG!