Media rights group, Burgos Media Center strongly expresses its condemnation over curtailment of press freedom by SM Mall of Asia Administration in yesterday’s rally staged by the militant youths, residents of Silverio Compound, Parañaque City and members of the media in an anti-demolition and anti-tree cutting rally yesterday at SM Mall of Asia.
On the said event, members of the mainstream and alternative media were repeatedly stopped from covering the dispersal. Cameras by the press and civilians were being shoved and covered. A photographer's lens was also reportedly shattered. There were reports that Security guards of the Mall used a large black cloth to hide the violent dispersal being done and to avoid the passersby and commuters.
“SM management should be accountable on their actions. What they did yesterday is obviously an act of censorship, an act of violence and an act of Suppression of freedom of expression.” said Marc Joseph Alejo, Spokesperson of Burgos Media center.
Besides from uprooting the 182 trees in Luneta hill to erect a parking lot in SM Baguio, SM management plans to demolish the house of some 25,000 to 28,000 families in Silverio Compound to pave the way for a new condominium of the SM Development Corporation. SM also plans to build a floating casino at Freedom Island which is the sole bird sanctuary in Metro Manila and a place of livelihood for the fishermen along the coastline of Manila Bay.
“Based on their actions yesterday, the SM management seems to be so desperate in expanding their corporate madness to the extent that even suppress the freedom of the press for the sake of profit” Alejo Added
“They need to be reminded that no one can uproot the truth. SM should not try to ampatuanize the of power of press freedom and the people” Alejo ended
It's hard to explain what happening on that day. But it's a bloody and brutal scene. Hope Government will make some way to fixed this problem so it will never be happen anymore.
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