As an American Filipino journalist I feel privileged to report in the U.S.My only license is the First Amendment, and it is respected wherever I go. In 1983, during martial law, I was in the Philippines to cover the funeral of Sen. Benigno Aquino. I was detained at the airport briefly, but certainly not jailed.

I was lucky.  According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’s 2009 Global Impunity Index, the Philippines is still one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism.

CPJ’s database survey calculates the number of unsolved killings over a 10-year period as a percentage of population and ranks them.  In the period the index covers, January 1, 1999, through December 31, 2008, the Philippines  is sixth out of 14 countries on the list.

No. 1 is Iraq with 2.983 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants. Then Sierra Leone with 1.552 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants, followed by  Somalia  with .690 per 1 million, Sri Lanka (.408) and Colombia (.439).

The Philippines at No.6 is a tad lower with .273 per 1 million inhabitants, but we have a nice Catholic birth rate to skew the numbers. At least 24 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the last decade. CPJ reports that courts have been ineffective in trying cases, and that when they have, witnesses have been threatened, attacked or killed.

The Philippine government calls it an exaggeration. But the facts are pretty compelling, especially for what is supposedly a free, democratic country. Digging for the truth isn’t supposed to get you killed. The case of journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat

What Garcia-Esperat knew and reported about agriculture officials Osmena Montaner and Estrella Sabay was enough to get her gunned down. A state’s witness testified he was asked by the officials to hire assassins to kill the columnist in 2005.

CPJ’s Elisabeth Witchel interviewed Philippine attorney Nena Santos, a private prosecutor representing the Esperat children. The delay has only helped the accused.

“We have witnesses who are old and sickly,” Santos said on the CPJ website. “If the witnesses are exhausted and tired of waiting; if they are influenced by the accused or die ahead of the prosecution it will weaken her case.”

The full interview is at http://cpj.org/blog/2009/03/seeking-justice-for-marlene-garcia-esperat.php

Santos said Garcia-Esperat knew too much about the irregularities in the Department of Agriculture.  They are pressing on with the case to vindicate Garcia-Esperat’s death.  “This is the only case where there could be the prosecution of a mastermind,” Santos told CPJ. “This would set the bar for other killings in the Philippines and around the world.”

So far the case moves slowly. But the spotlight on the plight of all journalists has been heightened because of the release this week  by Iran of American journalist Roxana Saberi.
Saberi’s Luck

A beautiful young American freelance journalist with dual citizenship is held by Iran. After being jailed for buying a bottle of wine (illegal in Iran), she is convicted of espionage, and imprisoned for weeks before finally being freed this week. Saberi is one lucky gal.

Lucky she was worth more alive than dead to the Iranian government. Lucky that she had freelanced for some high powered news agencies. Lucky she was a former beauty queen—doesn’t hurt when competing for news space in all media. It’s easy to cheer this journalistic feel-good story.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to imagine the unthinkable. The Philippines’ Garcia-Esperat is just one of  nearly 750 journalists killed over the last two decades all over the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Saberi  must not have been doing all that much digging. She was worth more to Iran to be freed as a P.R. gesture.

But is Iran more open? Are journalists treated differently there?  CPJ says at least six Iranian journalists were in prison during its last survey.

I wish it were different. But it  seems Iran stills knows how to put journalists in their place.
In the end, what have we? No real advance for anyone. Journalists are still stifled, and the diplomats of the world gain nothing, except that Iran may want a favor from the U.S. in the future.
It’s all political showbiz, which makes it logical that the real bonanza may be for Hollywood.
Is this not a new vehicle for Angelina Jolie?

In the meantime,  when Saberi does give her first interviews, will we hear about the two Asian American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling working for Current TV.

The two were reporting on  North Korean immigration into China  and  have been held in a North Korean prison since March 17  when they were arrested–for being journalists and are awaiting to be tried on criminal charges. Unlike Saberi, Lee and Ling have not been so lucky. Neither was Marlene Garcia-Esperat.

E-mail: emil@amok.com