NUJP hits media restrictions at Naia amid ‘tanim-bala’ scam

BULLET FOUND AT PASSENGER’S BAGGAGE AT NAIA TERMINAL 3/NOV.4,2015
A bullet is found in the baggage of Rey Salado, a passenger bound for Cagayan de Oro City at the NAIA Terminal 3. Salado admitted that the bullet was his after receiving it from a friend.
INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has condemned the reported restrictions being imposed on journalists covering the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) at the height of the alleged “tanim-bala” (bullet-planting) extortion scheme.

Noting that “brazen and baseless” acts have no place in a democracy, NUJP said no reason was given to the media for such restrictions.

“The only reason we see for the sudden restrictions on media is to cloak the truth on the alleged extortion racket. Indeed, such a move can only backfire on Naia and the personnel suspected of the scandal if it turns out, as they claim, that the ‘tanim bala’ is a fiction ‘blown out of proportion,” NUJP said in a statement.

NUJP also criticized the barring of media covering the proceedings in the charges against detained real estate developer Delfin Lee, alleged mastermind of the P7-billion Glober Asiatique housing scam, at the Regional Trial Court in San Fernando, Pampanga.

“Keeping a lid on the trial of Lee would deprive the victims of the housing scam of their right to information on a case on which many of their lives and futures literally hinge,” NUJP said.

The press union demanded the immediate lifting of the “sudden and unexplained” restrictions, especially that the issues concerned are matters of public interest.

“While there may be valid reasons to bar media from covering an event, neither of these issues fit the known criteria, such as national security, diplomacy, privacy or protecting the identities of children and women,” NUJP said.

“These restrictions are only perpetuating the culture of impunity that is plaguing the country where wrongdoers go unpunished. Such acts have no place in a democracy that is already suffering from the distinction of being the 4th most dangerous country for journalists as per the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist’s 2015 Global Impunity Index and even as we are commemorating the International End Impunity Campaign from November 2 to 23,” it added. TVJ

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