Media group hits 'censorship' of press freedom mural

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Tuesday said it was "saddened and appalled" by the defacement of the press freedom mural made by artists from Angono, Rizal for the National Press Club (NPC). "Absolutely nothing can justify the indignity done to a work of art that, ironically, seeks to honor the Philippine media's struggle for press freedom," the NUJP said in a statement. The NPC commissioned the Neo-Angono Artists Collective to do the 8x32-foot painting for P900,000. The mural was installed at the NPC building in Intramuros, Manila. The NUJP said the alterations on the mural “were not only an aesthetic outrage," but also “constituted censorship." A statement by the International Federation of Journalists, an international organization where NUJP is a member, was painted over with a caged monster-bird, while the alibata K or the pre-Hispanic letter on the arm of Andres Bonifacio was changed into a pierced heart. Also, the faces of Edita Burgos and her son, missing activist, Jonas Burgos’s, were altered on the mural, while the headline of the newspaper held by national hero Jose Rizal, was changed from “Press Freedom Fighter’s Son Abducted" to “Press Freedom Fight Is On." The NUJP statement said the changes made on the mural was "made worse by the fact that the message that was censored was one against censorship itself." "The explanations of the Club's officers have only served to bolster suspicions that the defacing of the press freedom mural was meant to please the guest of honor at its unveiling, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo," the NUJP said. “We can see how unveiling the mural would have been a rebuke to a president under whose watch the most number of journalists have been murdered – 53 at last count," the NUJP added. The NUJP questioned the NPC's statement that the mural should have been apolitical. “When you say the NPC must be 'apolitical', isn't this denying the historical fact that the freedom to write the truth was won through political struggles that included media and journalists? That during times of intense political crisis, journalists have taken up the cudgel and fought for the freedom to report the truth?" “When you erased the statement of the IFJ on the dangers the anti-terrorism law posed to press freedom, the alibata K – a fighting symbol – from the arm of a revolutionary leader, or the NUJP from the banners of protesting media organizations; or when you changed the headline on the abduction of Joe Burgos' son and the faces of Randy David and Juan Mercado, was the outcome a more accurate picture of press freedom in the country?" The NUJP said that “ordering the alterations is akin to rewriting a critical yet accurate report to avoid incurring the ire of the powers-that-be or appease a patron." “And we, in the media community, know by what word such an act is known by. It is definitely not truth or ethics," it said. - GMANews.TV