"Protect Our Journalists"

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In the light of Mike Enriquez' outburst on GMA News tonight, I urge you all to please, please, please protect our journalists.
There's a reason why during wartime, and during Martial Law, it's always crucial that communications and news outlets are shut down first. This is because journalists write the truth, and the truth is never what oppressors want the masses to see. They want the people to stay blind, spreading fake news and false hope and propaganda too shiny for anyone to see the cracks. They want the people to stay quiet, removing all voices of the opposition through military interrogation and murder. They want the people to stay complacent, satisfied with what little they have and too scared to ask for anything more.
But a journalist is none of those things; instead, he is restless, tenacious, and brave. Journalists breed revolution: against Spain, we had La Solidaridad; against America, we had La Independencia, El Heraldo de la Revolucion, and El Renacimiento; against Japan, we had The Liberator, Ateneo War News, and The Aspirant; against Marcos, we had We Forum, Who Magazine, and Pahayagang Malaya. Jose Rizal had proved that the right words can instill a sense of strong, united nationalism, and a journalist has words upon words to spare.
This is why, in a time when countless Filipinos are suffering from injustice at the hands of our own government, we need journalists more than ever. Duterte and the rest of his underserving, corrupt cabinet know that. And that is also why, in this year alone, the Philippines has been deemed the deadliest country for journalists in Southeast Asia, why the arrest of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was listed as one of the world's Top 10 Urgent Press Issues, and why the International Federation of Journalists condemns our president for not just ignoring the constitutional right of freedom of the press -- but, quite literally, killing it.
Mike Enriquez may be one of the first journalists that publicly spoke up against the results of this year's midterm elections, but he will never be the last. And the government has made it extremely clear what they do with journalists that fight for the opposition.
Protect our journalists. They're the center of the revolution we need.

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