CAGAYAN DE ORO — An international press freedom watchdog has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to mark International Human Rights Day on December 10 by using his executive power to free Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who has been in detention for almost six years now.
This call from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was contained in its letter dated December 8 and sent to Marcos Jr. This is part of CPJ’s latest campaign on imprisoned journalists in Asia.
Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia-Pacific director, stressed that Cumpio’s prolonged detention is inconsistent with the president’s public statement on defending press freedom, recalling his 2024 speech to the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, where he said, among other promises, that the press “must have the untrammeled freedom to do its work.”
Yi pressed Marcos Jr. to put his inspirational words into action by dropping the remaining charges against Tacloban-based journalist Cumpio, executive director of alternative news outlet Eastern Vista.
“Doing so would send the strongest signal yet that Philippine press freedom is on the mend after years of intimidation and harassment under your predecessor, and that journalists are truly able to report without fear of reprisal under your democratic leadership,” she wrote.
Cumpio recently secured two legal victories. The recent one was when a local court in Northern Samar granted the motion to quash the murder charges against her, which was welcomed by CPJ. This resulted in the reduction of her remaining cases to two, in which their promulgation dates have already been scheduled for next year.
Read: Charges faced by detained Filipino journalist dropped to 2; Is her release near?
Meanwhile, CPJ also reminded the country’s chief executive that it is imperative for the Philippine government to uphold its international and domestic human rights obligations as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Asia holds the most journalists in prison
CPJ’s latest campaign was supported by more than 1,500 journalists from 130 countries and territories after it led a solidarity action at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Malaysia on November 21.
Aside from calling on governments across the globe to free imprisoned journalists, they also called to end impunity for those who attack the press.
In a statement, the press freedom watchdog said this period is the deadliest time to be a journalist since it began its monitoring in 1992, with imprisonment and killings having reached record levels, including the nearly 250 journalists killed in Gaza.
On the other hand, CPJ also recorded a global high of more than 370 journalists behind bars in 2024, of which around 30 percent were from Asia—holding the most journalists in prison, with China (50), Myanmar (27), and Vietnam (16) being the worst offenders.
There are also journalists being held in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Afghanistan, and the Philippines.
“At the same time, journalists are being surveilled, criminalized, smeared, and forced to flee for their safety,” CPJ added. “As a [media] community we must craft and replicate a playbook to stand up together. Solidarity matters.”
Cumpio is the lone journalist detained in the Philippines. Various media and rights groups hold that the charges filed against her are baseless.
She had been writing critical reports exposing alleged human rights violations in her region and had reported being under surveillance prior to her arrest. (JDS)
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