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Manila Bulletin

Philippines

Women's group highlights crucial role of press in democracy

Philippines

Women's group highlights crucial role of press in democracy

By Gabriela Baron

On World Press Freedom Day, Center for Women's Resources (CWR) highlighted the crucial role of free and independent press in democracy and in the struggle for genuine independence.

(Noel Celis/AFP/MANILA BULLETIN)

"Center for Women's Resources stands in solidarity with media practitioners and workers who have been state targets in their pursuit of truth-seeking and truth-telling," the organization said Monday, May 3.

"Women and children have become more vulnerable as our civic and democratic spaces continue to shrink amidst worsening attacks to our human rights. A free and independent press is crucial in our struggle for genuine independence and democracy," CWR added.

The World Press Freedom Day is commemorated every May 3 in "support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom."

Proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, the World Press Freedom Day is also a day of remembrance of those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.

READ: World Press Freedom Day

The Philippines recently fell two places to 138th out of 180 economies in the Reporters Without Borders' 2021 World Press Freedom Index in the wake of the red-tagging of and attacks against local media.

Related Tags

Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Day Center for Womens Resources World Press Freedom Index

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