Communications Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, who also serves as executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, recently revealed the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has set a deadline of 2020 to have all cases of media killings resolved.

“The President would like to make our country better, safe, and free,” he said. “We hope that in year 2020, there will be no more record of media killing cases.”

The undersecretary made those comments while visiting Camp Olivas in San Fernando, Pampanga, headquarters for Police Regional Office-3, which provided Egco with documentation surrounding journalists who have been killed in their jurisdiction.

The task force will compile all the cases and classify them for review.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting press freedom, released their 2017 Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free, and found the Philippines in fifth place.

According to the group, “Impunity thrives in conflict environments, where powerful actors often use violent intimidation to control media coverage, while weak-to-nonexistent law and order increases the likelihood of attacks.”/PLL, WDJ