THE PRESIDENTIAL Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) recently supplied the Philippine National Police (PNP) Media Security Vanguards (MSVs) with the initial batch of the “Handbook on Personal Security Measures for Media Practitioners”.
These handbooks will be dispatched and coursed through the PNP Public Information Office (PIO) under Police Brig. Gen. Roderick Alba and they will be sent to PIOs nationwide.
Alba is also the Chief Focal Person of the Regional, Provincial, and City public information officers of the PNP. These information officers were also recently appointed as Media Security Vanguards by PNP Chief, Gen. Dionardo B. Carlos.
“The handbook starts with the Philippine Journalists’ Code of Ethics and ends with the PTFoMS Protocols. In between, basic guidance on personal security measures were thoroughly discussed,” said Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, also PTFoMS Executive Director, in a news release on Wednesday.
“We are releasing the initial 150 copies of the Handbook on Personal Security Measure for Media Practitioners (2nd edition) to the PNP-Public Information Office under Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Alba for distribution to the media and to the designated Media Security Vanguards nationwide,” he added.
He said the handbook is “a product of thorough studies and discussions among various law enforcement agencies and media organizations, (and) will be very helpful in ensuring the safety of media workers and their families,”
“We had distributed thousands of copies of the booklet before and will be distributing more next month,” he added.
Some of the topics included in this comprehensive handbook are Threat Detection and Assessment; Personal, Vehicle, and Travel Security; Security at Home and in the Office; and how to deal with threats coursed through email, landline, and cell phones.
“We are confident that with the release of these handbooks to the journos ‘first-line-of-defense’ in the remotest areas of the country, the MSVs will be better equipped to handle any and all kinds of incidents involving media workers,” he said.
In 2018, UNESCO made special mention of the Philippines when the Task Force launched this “Handbook on Personal Security Measures for Media Practitioners" that provides good practices for journalists on how to protect themselves and their families against violence, threats, and intimidation.
The PTFoMS published the guide and copies are given free of charge to media workers. An updated edition was released in 2020.
Created by President Duterte in 2016 to stop the slew of media killings that happened during past administrations, by 2021, PTFoMS oversaw the 51st case of media killing that resulted in a guilty verdict, bringing to 68 the total number of media killers that were convicted by the courts.
Egco said media freedom in the country is stronger than ever as proven by Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2021 Press Freedom Index where the country’s ranking for the past five years remained better than during past administrations. This, as the RSF noted a global decline in the Index because of the pandemic.
He said Duterte's lowest grade in the index was the late President Noynoy Aquino’s highest grade.
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