A Day of Remembrance
The story has been told over and over —of what came to be known as the worst politically motivated killing in this country and the worst single atrocity against journalists in the world. Today, those who came to cover the first anniversary of the Maguindanao Massacre were covering a story about themselves; the blaring sound of sirens and drums momentarily drowned out the collective sorrow that has engulfed the profession since that fateful morning when colleagues perished in the hands of the Ampatuans.
So what is it like being a journalist in a country where killing journalists seems easy, someone asked. Well, you wake up every morning thinking and feeling that everything is normal —and for the most part they are– until the abnormal pops right on your face and snuffs out your life. In a way, it is just like being a journalist in any country where democracy is alive and you are free to report as you must. Only, your freedom is the same freedom that gives some people the chance to amass wealth, consolidate power in their hands, build private armies; it is the same freedom that allows them to get away with it, and when you use your freedom to pick at their freedom to do such things, then you have a scenario like the Maguindanao Massacre.
At the end of the day, it is not about being a journalist in this country, but being a journalist, period. It is about the unsafe environment that democracy seems to have unwittingly bred, making it increasingly difficult for us to do what we have to do as members of the fourth estate.
Main story on CNN.com
