History teaches us that the media should be wary whenever men with guns deign to dictate what we should report and how.

MANILA — A journalist has been exposed to potential harassment.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) stressed this point in a reply to the Philippine Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) calling out Philstar.com reporter Cristina Chi for quoting progressive groups in her news article on Filipino-American activist Chantal Anicoche.

NUJP disagreed with the Army’s act of singling out Chi in a press statement instead of reaching out directly to her or to her newsroom to raise any issue of the story.

“[This tactic] is not meant to correct issues in reports but to intimidate reporters and the media community into sticking to official narratives,” NUJP said.

Chi reported on February 2 the return of Anicoche to the United States, where the journalist used the terms “held and disappeared.” She also cited the assertion of rights groups that the activist might face “torture, interrogation, threats, and harassment in military custody.”

The Army called these remarks “demonstrably false or misleading assertions,” which “mirror disinformation lines propagated by extremist and front organizations.”

NUJP said that the reporting on Anicoche’s situation in a military facility and her eventual departure has heavily relied on the information provided by the Army. But it stressed that this does not mean that the circumstances have been openly documented and verified by independent institutions, as 2ID claimed in its statement.

The journalists’ group reminded the military that “it will never be the only arbiter of truth,” commending the Philstar.com reporter for providing space to dissenting voices and not ignoring sectoral organizations.

“History teaches us that the media should be wary whenever men with guns deign to dictate what we should report and how,” it said.

Philstar.com did not release a statement as of this writing. (DAA)

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