Journalism and culture of impunity in the Philippines

The study aims to analyze how journalism and culture of impunity affect each other, focusing on the situation in the Philippines which is said to be one of the freest presses in Asia but is, ironically, one of the most murderous places in the world to practice journalism. This is timely because almost 200 journalists and media workers in the Philippines have been killed in the line of duty since 1986 with the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Aside from the prospects of being killed for doing their jobs, they also face harassment and intimidation particularly from the government and its supporters. While there had been studies on journalism globally, there is a dearth of research on culture of impunity. There is also not much research on the alternative media (also called non-profit or independent media) especially in the Philippines. This study addresses the research gap by focusing on these under-researched aspects, mindful that journalism and culture of impunity should be analyzed in the context of both dominant media (also called corporate media) and alternative media. For this thesis, the researcher used a mixed-method approach composed of indepth interviews with and a nationwide survey of Filipino journalists. In analyzing journalism and culture of impunity in the Philippines, the thesis hopes to make sense of the reality and provide recommendations on what could be done to help end impunity. The results of the interviews and survey show that journalism and culture of impunity affect each other in several ways. Much as the chilling effect is apparent, there exists a culture of resistance where journalists and media workers fight back not just in seeking justice for their colleagues (especially those who were killed) but also in defending press freedom from those who repress the media. Harassment and intimidation are apparent, a major form of which is red-tagging where journalists, media workers and news media organizations are accused by government and its supporters of being communists or terrorists, thus endangering their safety and security. The study contributes to the discourse on journalism and culture of impunity by providing theoretical, empirical and normative bases for analyzing the prevailing reality. Its research model could be used in analyzing journalism and culture of impunity in other countries, particularly in areas where journalists and media workers are in danger.