Journalists from Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia have attended a security workshop by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), held before their trip to the Philippines, which is considered the most dangerous place in the region for reporters.
SEAPA held a workshop on working in dangerous areas in the region for journalists who were awarded fellowships to produce in-depth reports on press freedom, media harassment and impunity. The fellows are three from Myanmar, two Indonesians and one Malaysian.
The three-day workshop, held in Bangkok, kicked off on Wednesday. After this the fellows will go into the field to report on the issue in the Philippines. This November is the fifth anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre in the Philippines.
In 2009, 58 people were killed in Ampatuan in Maguindanao Province, in the south of the country. 32 of them were journalists. This is considered one of the worst attacks on the media in the history of the Philippines. The murdered journalists were following an election campaign. No one has ever been prosecuted for the crime.
Because of the massacre, 23 November has been declared the International Day to End Impunity to remember the loss of the 32 journalists and 23 others.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also ranked the Philippines as the third worst country where the killers of journalists are not punished, following Iraq and Somalia. Since 1986, 145 journalists have been killed in the Philippines. In only 14 cases have the culprits been prosecuted.