Philippines

The International Press Institute Wednesday urged Philippine authorities to step up their investigation into the killing of a veteran newspaper journalist who was shot multiple times in an attack at her home last week. Rubylita Garcia, who had worked for the daily Remate for 20 years, was shot in front of her son and 10-year-old granddaughter the morning of April 6 in Bacoor, a city south of...

A tabloid reporter in the Philippines has been murdered in her own home. Two assailants fired multiple shots at Rubylita Garcia, 52, after entering her home in Bacoor City in the province of Cavite on April 6, according to news reports. The suspects fled the scene on a motorcycle. The journalist's family members rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she died, the reports said. Garcia was a...

A radio broadcaster in Kalibo town, the capital of Aklan province, has been receiving threatening text messages since February 2014 when he began criticising the town mayor for alleged corruption, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility has reported. Jodel Rentillo said he started receiving threatening text messages in late February after he started discussing in his radio programme issues...

Romeo Olea, a provincial radio commentator in the Philippines, was shot dead on his way to work Monday morning. Local and international media reports, quoting police sources, say Olea was shot twice in the back while riding his motorcycle to work in Iriga City in Camarines Sur province, about 300 km from Manila, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)...

An appeals court in the Philippines has decided to curb outside scrutiny of legal proceedings against suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, in which 32 journalists and media practitioners were systematically shot and murdered, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On April 12, Manila Court of Appeals Justice Danton Bueger ordered Monette...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the two criminal defamation charges that have been brought against Alberto Loyola, a journalist with radio DxRJ in Iligan City (on the southern island of Mindanao), by local city councillor Chonilo Ruiz. Arrested on April 18, Loyola was released Tuesday on bail of 10,000 pesos (160 euros) after being held for nearly 48...

Manila police must thoroughly investigate the murder of radio anchor Maria Len Fores Somera, who was shot Thursday near her home in Malabon City, a suburb of Manila. An unidentified man shot Somera, a DZME station host, in the back of the head before fleeing in a Jeep, according to the Associated Press. Some local news reports said there were two assailants. Somera, a 44-year-old mother of three...

A special five-judge panel named by the Philippines Court of Appeal in Manila may free the suspected mastermind behind the Maguindanao massacre, or release him on a technicality. Lawyers for Zaldy Ampatuan, the former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have entered a plea for the charges against their client to be dropped, according to New York-based Press freedom group...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the Philippines government to move quickly to protect journalists from increasing death threats against those reporting on corruption and environmental abuses, a month after the murder of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) dwAR commentator Gerardo Ortega. It urged President Benigno Aquino III to keep his promise to fight...

A local radio presenter with a reputation for outspokenness was shot in the head and killed January 24 on the island of Palawan in the west of the Philippines. Gerardo Ortega hosted a daily programme "Ramatak", on the station Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) dwAR. A man, identified as Marvin Alcaraz and said to be resident in Manila, is reported to have been arrested at the scene of the crime carrying...