The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the arrests of two men suspected of murdering Aklan broadcaster Rolando Ureta on January 3, 2001. According to the National Union of Journalists, Philippines (NUJP), an IFJ affiliate, Jessie Ticar surrendered to police after learning that fellow suspect Amador Raz was captured on November 26 after a Kalibo court issued a warrant for...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the actions of the Philippines police in detaining and arresting 17 journalists who were reporting on the takeover by rebel army soldiers of a hotel in Manila on November 29. The obstruction of journalists in the conduct of their work came as the Philippine National Police stormed the Peninsula Hotel to end a seven-hour stand-off with...
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of several dozen journalists to prevent them from covering a failed coup attempt at a Manila hotel where around 30 soldiers had demanded the ouster of President Gloria Arroyo on 29 November 2007. The journalists were taken, their hands bound, to the National Capital Region Police Office in Bicutan, south-east of the capital. Police said they had...
On October 7, 2006, after a six-month trial, the three hired assassins who killed Marlene Garcia-Esperat, a Filipino newspaper columnist and radio commentator who probed government corruption, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Marlene Garcia-Esperat was an accidental journalist. A chemist for the agriculture department on the southern island of Mindanao in the early 1990s, she was scrounging to...
On October 7, 2006, after a six-month trial, the three hired assassins who killed Marlene Garcia-Esperat, a Filipino newspaper columnist and radio commentator who probed government corruption, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Garcia-Esperat was gunned down in front of her children in the dining room of her home on March 24, 2005. She had received many threats and had requested police
Nearly 90 per cent of the journalists killed in the line of duty during President Gloria Arroyo's rule since 2001 were exposing corruption. The rest were killed for reporting on and criticising illegal gambling and the drug trade in their localities. These are among the findings of the annual report on the state of press freedom released by the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) on
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed its shock at the news that two volunteer radio announcers for Radio Ukay in Digos City narrowly escaped death after having shots fired at them. According to IFJ affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Marlan Malnegro and Ruben Oliverio had just finished their morning program and were riding tandem on a...
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed to protect journalists in the Philippines, but their death toll has risen to 53 under her administration. While the country’s press remains one of the freest and most vibrant communities of journalists in Southeast Asia, its members — particularly those outside Metro Manila and other major urban centers — have been targets of violence for years
A newspaper editor was shot dead by an unidentified man in the southern Philippines town of Mindanao this morning. Reports said Hernani Pastolero, 64, editor of the weekly paper Lightning Courier was sipping coffee in front of his house in Sultan Kudarat town on Mindanao island when gunmen shot him twice in the back of his head on Monday morning. Volunteers carry the body of Hernani Pastolero, 64...
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the government of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to drop sedition charges against critical The Daily Tribune publisher and two columnists. In its February 14 case against publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares and columnists Ramon Señeres and Herman Tiu-Laurel, the government said their writing could “lead or stir up the people against lawful...
