Duterte assures media protection if elected

Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte promised media protection under his presidency. Philstar.com/AJ Bolando,file

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed that media practitioners will be protected under his presidency.

Duterte called for greater protection of journalists in the country whose works he described as “under dangerous and even deadly conditions.”

“The state must protect the media,” Duterte said.

“In a democracy, the role of media is very important. In the absence of a credible opposition party, you can rely on the media,”  he added.

On Wednesday, the National Press Club challenged the presidential candidates to lay down their agenda for the media and their plans to address the media killings in the country.

Duterte said the media brings the wrongdoings and shortcomings of the government to the public’s attention and its role exposes them to danger.

Duterte’s spokesperson Peter Laviña said the presidential candidate will establish special courts and prosecution panels to handle cases of media killings as well as offer rewards and incentives for the immediate arrest, prosecution and conviction of the killers.

Laviña said Duterte will order police investigators and prosecutors to resolve the cases in a limited time to hasten the justice for slain journalists. “If not, they might as well look for another job,” he added.

Duterte’s spokesperson said the mayor has been a staunch protector of media rights, respecting the media's role as the “Fourth Estate” and never questioning them when they write or say anything critical of his administration. He cited that the mayor never filed any libel case against a journalist.

The mayor was also reported to have stood behind the media’s right to equal access during the first presidential debate in Cagayan de Oro when he threatened to skip the Visayas debate last February 21 if the organizers limited the local media coverage.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, there has been 170 journalists killed since 1986, 30 of which occurred under the current administration.

source: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/03/31/1568005/duterte-assures-media-protection-if-elected