Thread by @indayevarona

#DefendPressFreedom #FightTyranny Living in the dark. A martial law baby’s story. (Thread)
The newspapers disappeared and the television went on the blink when I was in grade 3. Dad didn’t know how to explain events to kids who had learned early to be news junkies.

Why? we kids asked. How will we know what’s happening?
Dad, a journalist, groped for answers. He said Marcos could be hiding something or wanted to do things he wanted to keep secret.
Something bad? we asked.
Bad things?

We learned anyway from the people who came daily to consult with our parents.
Of people disappearing.
Of men strung up on poles as a warning to others fighting for the right to own land.
Of officials stealing public funds.

Massacres.
Land grabbing.
Hunger. Illness. Dreams crushed by poverty.
Sugarlandia’s dead season lengthening into a year-round time of death. But too many people were left blind and deaf and, as a result, mute.

I wanted to be a doctor but decided the task of fighting that darkness was more important.
The biggest crime dictators visit on their people is blocking their right to the free flow of independent information.
From this, all abuse flow.

Without a free press there can be no genuine free expression.
Without free expression, there can be no defense of rights.
#NeverAgain
#DefendPressFreedom
#DefendYourRight2Know
#FightTyranny
Join the movement.
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