03/05/2026
[OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE UP FILM CIRCLE FOR WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY]
This World Press Freedom Day, we remember all the lives lost by choosing to uphold truth and freedom—from the journalists and media workers in Palestine martyred by the fake state of Israel—to the activists, volunteers, and a journalist among the Toboso 19 murdered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The massive genocide since the October 7th in Palestine remains to be a contested event in western media outlets despite proof of Zionist colonialism on stolen land, and Toboso 19 is unfortunately only one of the many instances the Philippine government has sought to violently s***f out independent journalism reporting on the plight of marginalized communities. In fact, Reporters Without Borders considers the Philippines as one of the most dangerous places for journalists; Palestine remains the most dangerous of all.
Since the dawn of the printing press, the elites have realized that access to information is power. Controlling the narrative is a means to shift accountability, justify wrongdoing, and obscure the truth. Hence, to suppress press freedom is to allow the continuous subjugation of all peoples. One such case is the killing of Toboso 19 in Negros Occidental, a massacre delivered by the bloody hands of the AFP’s 79th Infantry Battalion. There was no legitimate military operation in the area and the AFP themselves, represented by Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, could not confirm if all of the Toboso 19—including the students, journalist, and minors—possessed fi****ms, only that fi****ms were supposedly “found,” during a radio interview headed by Ted Failon. Evident here is the disregard for human life, brushed off to immediately neutralize the people, if not purposefully done to silence the volunteers, the journalist, and the community. In addition, news of the massacre was reported days after the event on April 19. But much of these information are not being reported; there is an apparent news blackout beyond the priority for the side of state forces. There is a monopoly on mass media. Among the slain are Alyssa Alano, student-leader, and RJ Ledesma, a writer and editor of independent news outlet Altermidya. Labelled as a “terrorist,” they were in the area doing community work and immersion. RJ Ledesma himself was researching the effects of renewable energy projects on vulnerable farmer communities. Until their very last breaths, they offered themselves to serve the people.
Similarly, Frenchie Mae Cumpio is a community journalist and the executive director of the news website Eastern Vista. She extensively covers the injustices and killings done on peasants. On February 7th 2020, the police raided her home with the false charge of “illegal possession of fi****ms.” While she was acquitted of this, she was instead convicted of “terrorism financing” on January 22nd 2026 based solely on testimonies from witnesses brought by the military in other human rights cases against the people. Frenchie Mae Cumpio is to serve 12–18 years in prison and was denied bail last February 13th, citing how her temporary freedom would enable her “to provide support — whether financial, logistical or operational — to terrorist organizations.”
These deaths and detainment are proof of the dangers of red-tagging, the license to imprison, even abduct, and kill anybody that the government deem too subversive. In occupied Palestine, the same tactics are employed by the state wherein they label all that were murdered as violent, armed combatants, Israel does not show any restraint, killing all men, women, and children, along with 235 journalists and media workers as reported by the International Federation of Journalism.
UP Film Circle hence calls for the protection of journalism and human rights actors and believes that media and technology must be made by the people for the people. The medium of film is rife with radical possibilities of storytelling, awareness, and truth. Some examples include Portraits of Mosquito Press (2015, dir. JL Burgos), detailing the censorship during Martial Law by focusing on Joe Burgos, the WE Forum, and how the state arrested the staff and shut the newspaper due to the exposure of Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s lies; A Thousand Cuts (2020, dir. Ramona S. Diaz), exploring the social media disinformation campaigns under the Duterte regime and the detainment of Journalist Maria Ressa; Five Broken Cameras (2011, dir. Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi), making use of digital technology to tell the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the village of Bil’in, and the struggle against the violent Israeli settlements; and Jenin, Jenin (2003, dir. Mohammad Bakri), taking us into the aftermath of Israel’s destruction of Jenin refugee camp in 2002. [Officially uploaded by the Palestine Film Institute: https://vimeo.com/499672067.]
The calls for press freedom includes not only the protection of journalists and human rights actors, but also the care for a fair and equitable information sphere free from mis-, dis-, and mal-information. Trolls, fake news, and generative AI pollute the current climate and muddle the truth. Press freedom is in crisis all over the world, undoubtedly a symptom of a rotten system tirelessly working to maintain itself. And so we must tirelessly resist their hegemony and silencing tenfold.
HANDS OFF OUR JOURNALISTS! DEFEND PRESS FREEDOM!
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