World Press Freedom Day: Where the PH stands

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is regarded as having one of the world’s freest media, as the 1987 Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press.

But some media practitioners remain at risk, having to face various threats from subjects they write about and criticize. It comes with the territory.

Cases of slain journalists have increased through the years, many of them still unsolved.

Also, access to public documents, through the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI), has remained difficult as Congress has yet to approve the law.

As we celebrate this year’s World Press Freedom Day on Saturday, May 3, let’s look at how some organizations assess the Philippine media, and how it compares to those in other countries.

1. Global Impunity Index

The Global Impunity Index is an annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which highlights “countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free.”

It ranks countries based on danger to journalists, based on the number of slain practitioners and based on how fast the cases are solved.

The Philippines ranked in CPJ’s 2014 report as the 3rd most dangerous place for journalists – a ranking that the country holds for the 4th consecutive year – with 0.527 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants.

Here’s the Philippine ranking in CPJ’s annual reports. Click on the years below to see the group’s report.

Year	Rank	Unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
2014	3rd	0.527
2013	3rd	0.580
2012	3rd	0.589
2011	3rd	0.609
2010	3rd	0.609
2009	6th	0.273
2008	6th	0.289

2. Freedom of the Press Score

The US-based organization Freedom House released it annual Freedom of the Press report, where the level of media freedom and editorial independence of each country are measured.

Each of the countries are slotted in 3 categories: free, partly free, and not free.

From 2004 to 2014, the Philippines was labeled “partly free.”

For this year, the country was given a score of 44. The lower the score, the better the status is of the nation’s press freedom.

Freedom House hasn’t provided yet a description of the Philippine media in its latest report. But in its report last year, the organization described it as “largely stable…despite continued inertia in dealing with the ongoing issue of impunity in cases of violence against journalists, as well as the introduction of potentially restrictive Internet legislation.”

Here’s the annual Philippine score given by Freedom House. Click on the years below to see the group’s report.

Year	Score	Classification
2014	44	partly free
2013	43	partly free
2012	42	partly free
2011	46	partly free
2010	48	partly free
2009	45	partly free
2008	45	partly free
2007	46	partly free
2006	40	partly free
2005	35	partly free
2004	34	partly free
2003	30	free
2002	30	free

3. World Press Freedom Index

The World Press Freedom Index is annually published by Reporters Without Borders, a France-based organization.

This index ranks countries based on their press freedom records.

In its 2010 report, the group began categorizing countries into 5 stages, depending on the status of the country’s media: good situation, satisfactory situation, noticeable problems, difficult situation, very serious situation.

From 2010 up to 2014, Philippine media was put under the “difficult situation” category.

The group didn’t describe the Philippine media in its 2014 report. The country was last mentioned in the 2010 report, as its score increased significantly due to the Maguindanao massacre in 2009.

A lower score in the index corresponds to greater press freedom.

Here’s the score and ranking of the country through the years. Click on the years below to see the group’s report.

Year	Rank	Score
2014	149	43.69
2013	147	43.11
2011-2012	140	64.5
2010	156	60
2009	122	38.25
2008	139	45
2007	128	44.75
2006	142	51
2005	139	50
2004	111	36.63
2003	118	35.25
2002	89	29

– Rappler.com