| GOVT TO
RESTRICT PRESS COVERAGE OF HOSTAGE CRISIS THE government is considering restrictions on press
coverage of the hostage crisis in the southern Philippines to prevent news reports from
complicating negotiations with Muslim rebels who are holding 21 mostly foreign hostages, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said yesterday.
He said government may prohibit journalists from
visiting the Abu Sayyaf rebel camp for interviews with the hostages and their captors.
He said extensive international publicity received by
the rebels has given them a “false sense of some kind of superiority or being on top
of the situation.”
“That is not the sort of atmosphere that can
lead to an early conclusion of the negotiations,” he said.
The Abu Sayyaf are holding three Germans, two French,
two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos who were
abducted April 23 from a Malaysian diving resort and taken to Jolo island in the southern
Philippines.
The government suspended negotiations with the rebels
on Monday after their demands began rapidly escalating. They are reportedly demanding a
very large ransom and the turnover of Malaysia’s Sabah state.
Puno, who was a top news executive at the Philippines’
ABS-CBN broadcast network before becoming press secretary, said journalists are now “being
used as tools” in the hostage crisis.
“It is no longer possible to say it is merely a
purely journalistic endeavor on their part. They are now being used as part of the action,
and that, I think, is where we make a distinction,” he said.
The government is considering holding regular press
briefings instead of allowing journalists to visit the Abu Sayyaf camp, Puno said.
He said Abu Sayyaf leaders could also express their
views.
“The right to information of all people can be
handled through regular press conferences that would be more orderly and a lot safer,”
Puno said. “On balance it is felt that perhaps some sort of restriction on media
coverage there is now warranted.”
Scores of foreign and Filipino journalists traveled
to remote Jolo after the kidnapping, and many made trips to the rebels’ mountainside
hideout.
The number of journalists visiting the camp has
declined sharply in recent weeks as the Abu Sayyaf’s treatment of reporters has
worsened. Many journalists have been forced to surrender personal belongings such as
watches, wedding rings, cameras, shoes and money.
In the most serious
incident, 10 foreign journalists working for German television networks and a German
magazine were held by the rebels for about 10 hours two weeks ago until they were able to
raise $25,000 to buy their freedom.
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