Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom

Home

Random Stories

1/10

Journalists arrested as protests open outside RNC

Radio host Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were arrested Monday while covering a protest of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. According to a news release by the show, all three were later released; Goodman was charged with obstruction while Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar face riot charges.

News

Access to information pushed Filipino journalists consider access to information as vital in their profession. The right to information is not only a right of journalists but of ordinary citizens, too. In the words of Nepo Malaluan, co-convenor of Access to Information Network (Atin), “Non-access to public information can lead to, or be used to hide corruption.”

Features

'Journalists must overcome self-censorship' Editha Burgos, mother of the disappeared activist Jonas and general manager of the We Forum, called on journalists to rise above the “more dangerous barrier” to pursuing a story: that which is self-imposed.

Viewpoints

Manila’s censorship law rears its ugly head What may well be one of the most alarming features of Ordinance 7780 is that its definition of “obscene” includes “printing, showing, depicting or describing” – yes, including describing – a variety of images, including “completely nude human bodies” and “the human sexual organs or the female breasts.”

Readings

Media power and people power Today we stand at the cusp of monumental changes in the media landscape. Radical, life and society-changing transformations in technology, work flow, organizational structures, and business models are overturning the world of media as we have known it for the last 100 years.

Mediawatch

The newspaper world suffers another blow Paris, May 5 (IPS) - The financial crisis in the French newspaper Le Monde, that led to an unprecedented two-day strike in mid-April, is symptom of a growing crisis in the print media in France, and in several other European countries.

Solidarity

Entry denied In the early hours of Monday morning, April 21, journalist Abir Sarras was denied entry ry into Israel by border guards at the international airport in Tel Aviv. She was detained in a jail cell until the following day, when she was put on a plane back to the Netherlands.

Nation

Crispin Beltran: The politics of the possible The affable Ka Bel, as he was popularly called, was indeed known for being generous to a fault. His life and death illustrate how he lived out his ideals, paid the price and proved the politics of the possible.

Focus

Remembering Celso Pojas As the spokesperson of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) in Southern Mindanao, Pojas was concerned over the plight of these Lumad farmers, still struggling for their ancestral land but ended up being displaced.

Analysis

Peace in Mindanao - at what price?

The peace process can bring about a simulated peace – but not the final solution to the Bangsamoro people's historic and just grievances. Moro leaders should be wary with other external parties' facilitation programs that put into greater harm the core interests not only of the Bangsamoro people but the sovereign and territorial rights of the country as a whole.

Opinion

The grand deception By engaging the MILF in a controversial agreement and now in an escalated armed conflict, the Arroyo government has been diverting the public's attention from the numerous issues haunting it. It is now making it appear that the most urgent and serious problem confronting the country is the armed conflict in Mindanao and that the villain is the MILF. This is the grand deception that the Arroyo government is trying to make the people believe.

Statements

Bayan: SC decision favors Arroyo regime's stonewalling tactics The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) is utterly disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the principle of executive privilege in relation to Romulo Neri’s conversations with the president on the bribe-tainted NBN-ZTE deal.

World

ILPS decries US hypocrisy on the Russian-Georgian conflict The US and its Nato allies have presented a distorted picture of the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. And the western media have stridently acted as the purveyor of US imperialist propaganda. The hypocrite George W. Bush has spearheaded the propaganda campaign by misrepresenting Russia as the aggressor and violator of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia in the current Russian-Georgian conflict.

JMS Arrest

Human rights group stands by concerns for violations of rights of Filipinos in NL On this supposed “independence day” of the Philippines, the Philippine Human Rights Watch delegation in attendance at the UN Human Rights Council 8th Session confirms its support to the joint statement delivered by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) during the “interactive dialogue” yesterday on the consideration of the report of the Working Group on the Netherlands Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

Antonio Zumel

Remembering Tony Zumel Antonio “Tony” Zumel – journalist and revolutionary leader – would have turned 75 last Aug. 10. Aug. 13, 2007 marks his sixth death anniversary. Known to his colleagues and many friends as Antumel or Manong, Zumel was born in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte – the second of six children.

Welcome
The Antono Zumel Center for Press Freedom welcomes you to its official site. Please send press releases, links or any items you think are worth publishing. To post, registered users can log in via the Member Area on top of the page. Visitors can also use the Member Area to change the site's settings. Also register to join our mailing list. Comments and suggestions on how we can further improve the site are definitely most welcome.
The web and editorial team
Video
'State of denial'

"State of denial" is Australian Broadcasting Corporation's video report on the political killings in the Philippines. Bangkok-based correspondent Karen Percy highlights the story of two University of the Philippines students - Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan - who on June 26 last year were abducted by armed men believed to be under the command of recently retired Major-General Jovito "The Butcher" Palparan. ABC aired this feature last May 15.

Choose your player and connection speed: