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Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom

Friday
May 18th
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Media group marks 'Black Thursday' after 5 deaths in 5 months

Media workers and press freedom advocates were urged to observe "Black Thursday" by wearing clothes of this color to condemn unabated media murders and the Aquino administration's wanting performance in the fight against impunity.

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Antonio Zumel
Two videos featuring Tony Zumel

We are posting here two videos of Antonio Zumel, which we stumbled upon recently. These are actually interviews in which Manong Tony talked about his family. We hope to feature similar videos and other memorabilia on the site in the near future.

News
Radio broadcaster shot dead

A radio broadcaster was shot dead in Mati, Davao Oriental, on Tuesday, May 8, police said, the fourth journalist slain this year in a country deemed by rights monitors as one of the most dangerous for the media.

 
Features
Mindanao's new breed of journalists

While carving their niche, editors from various colleges and universities in Mindanao aver the difficulties in popularizing their school newspapers and journals, during a Mindanao campus press conference held here recently. The 81-year old College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) hosted the two-day event which was attended by 79 participants from 19 publications.

Mediawatch
Wag the dog: How to cook-up Syrian drama
Some mainstream news channels have been recently caught carrying dubious footage from Syria. It fuels the debate over media's role in legitimizing possible military intervention in the country.
'Danny' is a Syrian opposition activist who reports from Homs for CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. He is attached to the opposition movement and regularly calls for military invasion of Syria. He's identified as Danny Abdul Dayem, a 22-year-old British citizen of Syrian origin.
In a video leaked online, Danny appears to be falsifying a video broadcast for CNN. Prior to going on air, he requests colleagues to fire weapons to dramatize his Live report with Anderson Cooper. Though he denied any wrongdoings in an interview to CNN after the video went viral, his reliability as a verified news source was called into question.
Danny is far from being a lone soldier in an increasingly dirty information war. Investigative journalist Rafik Lotf has spent months looking at the background to footage that has helped shaped global opinion on the conflict. He told RT that Al Jazeera is involved in video fabrication to discredit the Syrian regime and cites a video described by Al Jazeera as proof Syrian Govt forces had bombed an oil pipeline.
"I know this video is on the Al Jazeera server. It is clear it is not an explosion but they ignore that and keep on reporting on the way they need to see it," he said.
It is even thought that the clip may have been staged by rebels who blew up the pipeline themselves, as alleged on Infowars.com.
Dark turns in Syria's blame game
All Journalists admit that verifying footage on the ground in Syria is difficult, nigh on impossible.
Most recently shocking footage emerged of some 47 bodies, including women and children found with their throats slit, bearing stab wounds and signs of rape. The opposition called for a UNSC emergency meeting on 'the massacre'.
Assad's government, in turn, announced that 'terrorist gangs' killed those in the video and claimed Homs' residents recognized relatives among the dead, who had been previously kidnapped by the Syrian rebels.
As the mutual blame game spirals downwards and civilian suffering continues, the recent resignations of key Al Jazeera journalists may serve as a clear indicator – that some mainstream Syria conflict coverage is far from objective.

Some mainstream news channels have been recently caught carrying dubious footage from Syria. It fuels the debate over media's role in legitimizing possible military intervention in the country.

 
Solidarity
Ifex launches 'International Day to End Impunity' today

Today, Nov. 23, is the International Day to End Impunity (Idei). The International Freedom of Exchange (Ifex) community has chosen this day to honor those who have been silenced forever for exercising their right to freedom of expression, and to raise awareness that their killers often go unpunished.

Readings
Reality, news perception and accuracy

Quoting people isn’t journalism — it’s clerking. We’re merely taking words, transcribing them, and publishing them. Journalism demands we challenge our sources and find the truth. As one grizzled city editor said in the late 19th century, if your mother claims to be your mother, demand a birth certificate.

 
Nation
Zamboanga protest vs Balikatan troops shows mounting anti-US sentiment About 3,000 workers, peasants, youth and students, teachers, church people, Moro, Lumads (indigenous people) and urban poor settlers, among others, converged here to protest the Balikatan military war exercises between the US and Philippine troops.
Focus
My mother's journey

Now, how could I stomach that this government is footing the bill for millionaire, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo? It is disgusting. It is the height of injustice. It is immoral. What about the thousands of poor sick Filipinos being turned away by our public hospitals?

 
Analysis
US agenda in Asia and the risks that Aquino is courting

The question is not which party to side with, but how the Philippines can best protect its territorial integrity. If there is a perception that China is bullying us, the solution is not to run for help to a bigger bully.

Opinion
Poachers

In our own backyard we have our own Hainanese fishermen in the form of the Filipinos who keep going back and forth to Sabah or North Borneo simply because many of their close relatives live there and have lived there even before these became Malaysian territory.

 
Statements
Edsa I symbolizes the people’s unfulfilled hopes

Feb. 25, 1986 marks a point in history where the Filipino people came together to bring down a much-feared and much-hated fascist dictatorship that was steering the country on the road to perdition. It represents a moment when the Filipino people decided to cast their lot with the call for change and installed a regime that promised the restoration of democracy and the improvement of the people’s condition.

Human Rights
After more than 3 years, Ombudsman acts on torture case

After almost six years, torture victim Raymond Manalo was asked to recount the horror he went through at the hands of the military during the clarificatory hearing at the Office of the Ombudsman, Jan. 31.

 
World
The nation that refused to die

The day before I set out to film clandestinely there in 1993, I went to Stanfords map shop in London's Covent Garden. "Timor?" said a hesitant sales assistant. We stood staring at shelves marked "south-east Asia."

Video
Video of soldiers torturing captives riles Filipinos on Facebook

After watching the video, which was widely circulated on Facebook, many expressed shock and outrage, denouncing the Armed Forces of the Philippines as human-rights violators, while others simply commented how difficult it is to look at the video and not cry with anger.