VER the past few years, we celebrated World Press
Freedom (WPF) Day either with a TV broadcast or public
forum accompanied with editorials and the like.

In 2002, UNESCO selected the Philippines as the venue for a three-day
international conference on media and terrorism as well as an occasion
to confer the WPF award to a Zimbabwe media freedom fighter and a
posthumous award to an American journalist who was killed by terrorists.

In addition to representatives of international media organizations and
journalists from various countries, we were also honored at that time
by the visit of the UNESCO Director-General who conferred with
the President and the various officials of the government.

Last Tuesday, the May 3 celebration was marked by a departure from
the usual. The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP)
in cooperation with several media organizations, marked the event by
holding a Human Chain for Press Freedom.
Lighting 100 torches, the black-clad participants focused attention
on the wanton killing of journalists in the country.

NUJP Chair Inday Espina-Varona and Carlos H. Conde, Secretary-General,
in their May 3 message stated: "There can be no press freedom if
journalists exist in conditions of fear, poverty, and corruption.

Neither can there be genuine democracy in a country whose citizens
exist under the same conditions. We send a strong message to the
enemies of press freedom: We will not be cowed. We will
not be silenced. You will not steal democracy from
the Filipino people."

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