From being the most dangerous place for journalists, we now share the spotlight with Mexico, Honduras, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Just in five days last June, three journalists were killed. This worldwide trend is rising with 59 reported to have been killed in the first six months of the year. The International Press Institute links the continued targeting of journalists to the impunity that killers enjoy in our country. It further noted that if President Aquino “wishes to stamp out corruption, the Philippines will need a fully functioning media that is not constantly under threat of attack.”

The multidisciplinary inquiry conducted by AIJC, PACE, and UNESCO, examined the culture of Impunity, recommending feasible research and action areas that can be pursued by the social science and legal community.

The factors include social and political factors – perpetration of violence in broad daylight, “silencing of witnesses,” continuing postponement of court hearings, lack of political will to ferret out the truth, among others. There are also the existing cultural values and practices – child rearing, socialization relationships within the family and with peers, learning methodologies in formal and non-formal learning, practices in governance such as transactional politics, election behavior, and responses to work and learning situations in everyday life.

Our existing political culture must be examined, according to Dr. Clarita Carlos who observed that our public is becoming “inured to the level of corruption and violence, a violence corruption fatigue that has set in, and a continuing political patronage which involves the PNP and the Armed Forces, as well a less discerning electorate that is not willing to vote out of office erring politicians.”

Dr. Lourdes Carandang suggests the concept of “narcissism,” a way of thinking where one can only see his or her own point of view. This makes one less empathetic and compassionate. Atty. Amparita Sta. Maria, professor at the Ateneo Law School, cited community connections as important in reinforcing “utang na loob” and “pakikisama,” factors that have implications in pursuing human rights cases. Educating community members on their rights can help emancipate them from their feelings of helplessness.

“Tolerance for a “high saturation experience” for violence is an indicator, according to Dr. Roland Tolentino, dean of UP Mass Communication at Diliman, who sees media as a major contributory factor. In his critique of the state of the media in relationship to impunity, Tolentino makes this perceptive analysis:

The state has zoomed in on journalists and activists as purveyors of social dissent that threatens the cooptation of the Philippine state for global capitalism through privatization of state operations in favor of big businesses, deregulation of services and industries, and commercialization. Indeed, many of the victims are killed by paramilitary units, if not by the military elements of the state itself….The killings are frontpage news, but the investigation land in the fringes. What needs to be highlighted is the vigilance of media in the killings of its practitioners and the eventual demise of its tortured profession. The killings cower dreams of being the fourth estate, shaping and transforming public opinion, and so on as past relics. The killings themselves become demonized, pedestrianized, and massified. What then needs to be emplaced are the critical tools of political and social analyses of the Philippine state on the one hand, and the gentrified shift of media practices and aspirations on the other hand. These cover the present experience of media in Philippine neoliberalism.

My e-mail is florangel.braid@gmail.com.