Philippines Loses a Press Freedom Fighter

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chairman Nonoy Espina speaks to other journalists and activists as they gather to hold a vigil on the eve of the promulgation of the Maguindanao massacre trial on December 18, 2019 in Manila, Philippines.
© 2019 Jes Aznar/Getty Images
The Philippines lost one of its foremost press freedom fighters Wednesday night. Jose Jaime Espina, popularly known as “Nonoy,” died from liver cancer just days after recovering from Covid-19, his family said. He was 59.
A longtime journalist based mainly in the central Philippines region of Negros, Espina was chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) from 2018 to 2021. During this period President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a withering attack against the media, leading to the December 2020 shutdown of ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcast network, and the persecution of Maria Ressa and her investigative news outfit Rappler. Espina and his colleagues at the NUJP, buoyed by strong solidarity from media and human rights organizations, were on the front lines of the struggle to defend the press.

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