When police harass the media
Someone should advise Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. to first get all the details of any reported incident before shooting his mouth off. Without being on the scene, without being briefed by his staff, or attempting to get more information from those on site, the police chief issued a blanket denial of the police harassment involving two photojournalists last week.
“There’s no such thing as harassment, nandoon sila sa hanay ng raliyista, pumapalag sila (they were there among the rallyists and resisting), or whatever,” Nartatez said following report of the police action.
Before prematurely clearing the police, Nartatez could have asked to see photos and video of the incident that clearly showed Pasay City police crowding veteran photojournalist Bullit Marquez and trying to cuff him as he bent to retrieve his camera that fell in the scuffle. The timely intervention of Marquez’s media colleagues prevented the arrest. Marquez and Manila Times photo editor Rene Dilan were covering the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Pasay City last week, that had among its guests United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A Muslim woman
In a statement, Marquez said the incident began when they saw a Muslim woman being pulled from the ranks of protesters by the police. “Instinctively, Rene and I tried to photograph what was happening. However, policemen rushed toward us and prevented us from taking photos. One of them covered my lens, to which I reacted.” This, despite the conspicuous Press ID of the photographers and the professional cameras they were using to document the protest rally.
Media and rights groups rightly slammed the police action as “harassment and intimidation … that undermines press freedom, the public’s right to information, and the principles of transparency and accountability,” as pointed out by the Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines.
Noted the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, where Marquez was a member as Associated Press photographer: “Such actions are unacceptable. Journalists must be able to carry out their work without intimidation, obstruction, or threats.”
Notwithstanding Nartatez’s premature denial of the videotaped harassment, the PNP said it was conducting an impartial and thorough investigation into the incident involving police personnel and members of the media. It said the PNP “remains committed to transparency, accountability, and the continuous improvement of its engagement with the media and all stakeholders.”
Serious concerns
For its part, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) said it “takes seriously” the reported incident, as police officers are expected to be knowledgeable and to uphold rules that promote the safety of media practitioners, as well as the protection of freedom of expression.
Should its investigation “establish that any police personnel violated the law, existing PNP rules, or established operational procedures, they will be held accountable and dealt with accordingly,” the Napolcom added.
The Southern Police District (SPD), which has jurisdiction over Pasay City where the harassment occurred, said it was also conducting an investigation “fairly, impartially, and in accordance with due process.”
And rightly so, because the incident raises serious concerns about abuse of authority of which there have been a lot of incidents involving the police—from gun-toting and road rage, to false arrests with extortion. Given the police’s dodgy record, was there something fishy about the possible arrest of that Muslim woman such that the police prevented media from documenting it?
Not mere bystanders
On top of administrative sanctions of SPD police involved in the incident, the Napolcom should impose punitive damages to compensate for the camera that could have been out of commission due to the scuffle, and the opportunity loss because of the censored photographic moment. It is also incumbent on the Napolcom and the PNP to put in place better training on protocols for crowd control, as well as respect for the media’s crucial role in documenting and spreading information that the public can use to push for their rights.
As Marquez himself noted in his statement about the harassment, the incident is more than just a case of misidentification of media. “It speaks to a larger issue: the need to recognize and protect the role of the press, especially in moments of public unrest. Journalists are not mere bystanders. [They] are there to document, to inform, and to ensure that the public has an accurate record of events as they unfold. When that role is blurred or dismissed, even unintentionally, it weakens the very function the press is meant to serve.”
These are words that the Napolcom should drill into the police with a swift, transparent, and full-scale investigation of the incident and the appropriate sanctions for those involved.
