(Bulatlat) MANILA – While the media industry in the country faces hundreds of attacks in the past six years under outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, the situation is no different for student publications in their respective campuses nationwide.
In Duterte’s last few weeks as president, state forces arrested over 90 individuals in broad daylight during a cultivation activity held by farmers of Hacienda Tinang in Tarlac province. Among them were two journalists and nine campus journalists who covered the event.
Campus journalist Denisse Macalino never imagined having to lock arms with farmers, activists, and media workers in an initially peaceful gathering to form a blockade against policemen who dragged them to a shuttle one by one.
“Kaming media, kahit nagpalista kami under media, di pa rin nirecognize. … Pero dahil tingin nila (pulis) kaya nila [kami arestuhin], kinuha nila,” Macalino said.
(Even we, part of the media, were not recognized despite our names listed under the media… But because [the police] knew they could [arrest us], they took us.)
It was Macalino’s first on-ground coverage since the pandemic began, and her last day as a campus journalist. Other campus journalists in the country also experienced different forms of harassment… Read More
