Fishers prepare their gear for another grueling sortie in the high seas unmindful of a ferry bringing in tourists and visitors preparing to take in the sights of Zamboanga. Photo by Red Batario

PASS FOI! A multi-sectoral rally in Davao City on May 24  pressing for the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information Bill. Photo by Erwin Quiñones / LRC-KsK

MANILA (PNA) – Foreign businessmen on Monday threw strong support behind the ratification of the Bicameral Conference Committee Report of HB 3732 (Freedom of Access to Information Bill).
In a statement, the Joint Foreign Chamber (JFC) said that if the bill is passed into law it will not only provide a clear, uniform and speedy procedure for access to information of public interest but also improve the country’s competitiveness ranking.
It will set administrative, criminal and civil liability for violation of the right to information and …

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/11 April) — That’s always the question Presidential Management Staff (PMS) personnel ask journalists during Presidential sorties in Mindanao.
Even media handlers of some high ranking government officials who visi the provinces, also ask the same question.
Why? The answer is simple: you get special treatment if you’re “national.”
To post your comments or reactions, please read the full article  at  CCJD Blog section.

Freedom of information advocates found another champion in known social reformer Bishop Broderick Pabillo as the campaign for the ratification of the FOI Bill by the Lower House on May 31 intensifies.

With the Freedom of Information bill hanging in the balance, the Center for Community Journalism and Development is re-posting the Inquirer editorial of February 9 which essentially captures the predicament of meaningful and substantial legislative measures in a Congress preoccupied with partisan concerns. The CCJD urges colleagues, public interest groups and citizens to intensify efforts to have this bill passed by the 14th Congress. Work for its passage started in the 11th Congress or period of 12 years.

The International News Safety Institute urges journalists in the Philippines to resist calls to carry guns following the horrific massacre in Maguindanao. INSI believes that the safety of journalists would not be improved, and in fact probably would be diminished, were they to carry weapons.

“Journalists increasingly are being targeted largely because they have lost, in the eyes of certain elements, their status as neutral observers. If they bear arms they reinforce this misguided belief by placing themselves on one side or another,” said INSI Director Rodney Pinder.

Today is the day that we mark the first month anniversary of the most unspeakable atrocity committed against Filipino journalists together with those who set out to fulfill an electoral right in Maguindanao, a simple enough exercise that turned out to have far-reaching implications for human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
Today, as we stand resolute in shouting “Never again!” we do so with the hope that our call for justice for the Maguindanao massacre victims  and their families does not fall on deaf ears.
Today, even as we note …

Finally, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act passed Third Reading in the Senate today, (December 14) after three Congresses marked by hard lobbying by various interest groups led by the Access to Information Network (ATIN).
“In the past, the bill was only able to get the nod of the House of Representatives but gets stuck in the Senate.  It is only now that significant strides were achieved with regard to pushing this bill,” said Representative Lorenzo R. Tañada III, the bill’s author in the Lower House.
Tañada emphasized the importance of getting …

Access to Information Key to Fight Corruption
People’s access to information is key in reducing corruption in local and national government, which is now the core issue in the crisis in Maguindanao following the abduction and slaughter of 57 people in the country’s worst election-related violence and the world’s deadliest single attack against journalists.
This was the main message of Red Batario, Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD) executive director and Nepomuceno Malaluan, Access to Information Network (ATIN) lead convenor in a live radio discussion December 9 over dzMM’s “Dos por …