Jailed journalist urges young reporters to keep writing despite threats

From behind prison walls, detained journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio urged young Filipino journalists to continue reporting and writing despite what she described as worsening threats to press freedom in the country.

“I urge young journalists to never stop writing—our pens have once toppled down a dictatorship,” Cumpio said in a message marking National Press Freedom Day.

Cumpio, who has been detained for more than six years, said journalists continue to face threats when reporting stories from communities, particularly those involving alleged government abuses, public spending controversies, and other issues affecting ordinary Filipinos.

She warned that attempts to control the flow of information compromise the public’s right to meaningful news coverage.

“Those in power are ever-desperate to control and feed the mass media with a coverage unworthy of people’s attention in an attempt to cover up their atrocities and negligence,” she said.

Cumpio cited the continued risks faced by journalists, including red-tagging, violence, and criminal charges. She said these could discourage reporters from pursuing sensitive stories.

She also raised concerns over the continued operation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which she accused of contributing to the repression and control of information.

Cumpio pointed to cases involving journalists who have been red-tagged or charged with terrorism-related offenses, including her own case.

She was arrested in Tacloban City on Feb. 7, 2020, following a raid by police and military personnel, during which she was initially charged with illegal possession of firearms and later faced a terrorism financing charge.

She was acquitted of the firearms charge but was convicted of terrorism financing in January 2026 and sentenced to 12 to 18 years in prison.

Cumpio has maintained that evidence against her was planted, an allegation that was also examined in an investigation by Reporters Without Borders.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has also found that the detention of Cumpio and two co-accused lacked sufficient factual and legal basis, according to information cited in reports on the case. 

The UN body added that Cumpio’s detention stemmed from the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, and called for their immediate release and an independent investigation into the circumstances of their detention.

Despite her imprisonment, Cumpio said journalism remains essential to people whose stories often go unheard.

“But the media being repressed is the people in struggle. Amidst the ever-worsening repression, we are one of those for whom we write,” she said.

“I salute all journalists who have taken the challenge of directing their lens to the unseen and unheard,” she said in tribute to journalists who continue reporting from remote and difficult areas despite physical hardship and security threats.

Cumpio also said journalism has helped bring attention to the conditions of women prisoners and contributed to improvements in treatment and services in detention facilities.

“Locked behind bars, the political prisoners in CIW raise our fists in support of our struggle for press freedom,” she said, referring to the Correctional Institution for Women.

Cumpio ended her message with a call for journalists and advocates to continue pushing for greater freedoms, “We are yet to win more freedom as we make history. Defend Press Freedom!”