But consider another statistic and the question doesn't look so simple: 32 Filipino journalists have been killed since the press broke free from Marcos muzzling in 1986. The latest: Danny Hernandez, 54, a crusading columnist for the popular People's Tonight tabloid. He braved death threats to expose drug barons and other criminals. Found in a stolen taxicab with a bullet wound in his neck, Hernandez grimly showed by his death that official censorship is not the only impediment to freedom of expression. On the well-policed streets of Singapore, journalists may have to be careful about official sensitivities, but little else. In Manila, however, many in the media worry about anyone who has a gripe, a gun and good connections, be they public officials, tycoons, criminals, rogue police or soldiers -- anyone. A worrisome number of Philippine law enforcers are believed to be in cahoots with criminals. Just prior to his death, Hernandez was especially critical of an alleged drug baron in Bulacan province, north of the capital, who had masqueraded as a cop and kept newsmen in his pay.
Plainly, wherever law and order has deteriorated to such a state that it is so easy to intimidate the press, then it is not just journalists who suffer, but free expression and the truth. Besides the Philippines, India and Thailand are places where press freedom is safeguarded by law, but often compromised by lawlessness. The Freedom Forum lists six Asian journalists murdered because of their work in 1996 -- five of them in democratic countries. (Of course, in other nations, the press may just be too passive to provoke attack.) Last week, triad syndicates in Macau threatened violence against journalists who report their activities. Crooked officials are also keen to silence critics. The Indonesian Journalists Association is still urging that the investigation into Jogjakarta journalist Muhammad Sjafruddin's death be reopened. There were complaints of a police cover-up in the wake of his probes into high-level graft.
The international community tends to focus on state pressure on the media. Yet vindictive violence by private individuals and groups can be equally constricting. Put simply, it is one thing for journalists to keep writing when they risk a jail term or a pink slip. But the threat of death or injury is a deterrent of a different order. Just ask the newshounds of Hong Kong, rated in the PERC survey as the second-freest in Asia, after one of their number suffered a severed arm at the hand of a suspected triad attacker last year.
In an unfinished book, Hernandez had expressed the hope that President Fidel Ramos would go after the drug lords. The columnist's death is another reason for Manila to hunt down the narco-kings. In seeking justice for Danny Hernandez and other slain journalists, Asian governments will help the region find truth and freedom as well.
