Malaya’s chief of reporters, columnist and blogger Ellen Tordesillas and Malaya reporter Ashzel Hachero were among those arrested by authorities early tonight after the surrender of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and General Danilo Lim.

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Media groups are incensed about the arrest.

Says the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in a statement:

Never in the turbulent recent history of the Philippines has any government, including that of Ferdinand Marcos, ever taken into custody members of the media who were on the scene to do their jobs.

But the arrest of the media people who were covering the take-over of the Peninsula Hotel by Senator Antonio Trillanes’ Magdalo group is not only unprecedented. It is also an outrage, and a telling indication of the authoritarian depths into which the Arroyo regime has fallen in its obsession with political dominance.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has this to say:

We protest in strongest terms the PNP’s move to forcibly bring some journalists to the National Capital Region Police Office in Bicutan and condemn the confiscation of video footage of the day-long stand-off at the Manila Peninsula Hotel.

We denounce the overkill that led to the tying of the hands of members of ABS-CBN’s technical team and reporters in what looked like a virtual arrest. The explanation by police officials and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro that the move was made to prevent the escape of Magdalo troops does not wash.

Malaya publisher and Philippine Press Institute chair Amado P. Macasaet emailed this statement:

The Philippine Press Institute condemns the arbitrary arrest of members of the media who covered the standoff at the Manila Peninsula.

We see clear danger in the government’s seemingly hasty interpretation that the coverage and reporting of the standoff threatens national security as this may be the only ground that government may use in rounding up those who took the risk to stay inside the hotel.

We will continue to fight for press freedom under any kind of threat.

The fact that media were asked to leave but refused cannot justify the arrest. Media exposed themselves to the harm by the forces of the state and chose to do their duty. In the same manner those who were outside the hotel but were not arrested were similarly performing their duties.

We find it lame that the arrest had to be made because there was intelligence information that the ranks of legitimate media have been infiltrated. The very simple thing to do is ask who they work for and check their respective agencies or company.

We object to this undisguised martial law practice.

I am really sad that the Arroyo government did this to the reporters and other members of the press.