Philippines

The National Press Club (NPC) of the Philippines has given President Benigno Simeon Aquino III a grade of 80 per cent in running after the killers of journalists. The rating was cited in NPC President Jerry Yap's yearend press report released on Friday. The NPC said there are yardsticks to determine how safe it is to practice journalism in a certain area such as: how many journalists were killed...

A Manila court has acquitted the alleged gunmen in the 2004 killing of a broadcaster in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has reported. Ilocos Norte is a province 399 km north of Manila. Branch 54 of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) cleared former Senior Police Officer Apolonio Medrano and Basilio Yadao of charges for the murder of Ilocos Norte...

A radio reporter died on Saturday, three weeks after he was shot by a gunman in the eastern Philippines, a provincial police chief said, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Miguel Belen, 48, died two days after his third operation at a hospital in Iriga City, 350 kilometres south-east of Manila, Senior Superintendent Jonathan Ablang said. "He died before dawn," he said. "His body could no...

Miguel Belen, a reporter for radio dwEB in Nabua (in the eastern Philippines province of Camarines Sur), was seriously wounded in a shooting as he was returning to his home in Iriga on the evening of July 9. At least four shots were fired at him by two men on a motorcycle. Hospitalised and in a serious condition, he has been placed under police protection, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has...

Newspaper reporter Nestor Bedolido was shot and killed by an unidentified gunmen on Saturday evening in Digos City, Davao del Sur province, in the southern Philippines, according to local and international news reports. He is the third journalist to be murdered over the past week in the Philippines, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. Bedolido, 50, a reporter with The Kastigador...

Philippine radio commentator Joselito Agustin was fatally shot by two motorcycle riding assailants while heading home from work late Tuesday evening near Baccara town in the northern Philippines, according to local and international news reports. The murder occurred just one day after the murder of radio journalist Desidario Camangyan in southern Mindanao. Agustin died from four gunshot wounds on...

A gunman shot broadcast journalist Desidario Camangyan from behind at close range while he was on stage hosting an amateur singing contest in Manay town, Davao Oriental province, on the southern island of Mindanao, Monday, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Camangyan died at the scene from a single shot to the head in front of the contest’s audience, which included his wife and 6...

The Philippines government has dropped murder charges against Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and his uncle, Akmad Ampatuan, former mayor of Mamasapano on the southern island of Mindanao, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The move, announced in Manila on Saturday, overruled the Quezon City Regional Court, which is hearing the...

A life sentence has been passed on hitman Madix Maulana for the 2005 murder of radio journalist Edgar Amoro in Pagadian, on the southern island of Mindanao. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) regards it as an “encouraging sign” but believes the case should not be closed until the masterminds and accomplices have been identified and brought to trial. In a written message to RSF after sentencing, Amoro...

“Nothing seems able to stop the violence against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said today after learning that A Philippines radio commentator Eugene Paet was wounded in a shooting attack Thursday in a the northern province of Ilocos Sur, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The motive for the attempt to kill Paet is not yet clear but his family said it could be linked to...