By Jim Gomez
Associated Press
Manila, Philippines (Associated Press)-A gunman shot and killed a journalist who was watching TV in a store in a central city in the Philippines. One of the dangerous countries.
The 58-year-old provincial reporter of the Manila Standard, Jesus Malabanan, was shot in the head by one of two men on a motorcycle in a family store on the evening of December 8 and died while being taken to the hospital. Police and officials said he was caring for him in Carbayo, Samar province.
The suspects fled, and the police are investigating to determine their identity and motive for the attack.
Media watchdog groups condemned the killing, including Malabanan’s colleagues in Pampanga, northern Manila, where he worked for many years as a news reporter and a special correspondent for Reuters.
The media protection agency founded by President Rodrigo Duterte strongly condemned the killing and vowed to arrest the killer. But Duterte himself has long been the target of media watchdogs and human rights organizations. These organizations have repeatedly condemned him for promoting impunity in the police forces, which have severely cracked down on illegal drugs and led to thousands of The name is mainly for the death of a minor suspect.
Under the leadership of Duterte and his predecessors, dozens of journalists were killed or attacked. In 2009, members of a powerful political family and their accomplices launched a shameless execution-style attack in southern Maguindanao Province, killing 58 people, including 32 media workers, which shocked the world.
Although the mass killings were later linked to violent election competition common in many rural areas, it also demonstrated the threats faced by Filipino journalists. In this poor Southeast Asian country, the security issues faced by journalists include a large number of unlicensed guns and private armies controlled by powerful clans, as well as poor law enforcement in rural areas.
Of the people shot and killed in the Ampatuan town of Maguindanao, 32 were local journalists and media workers. Media regulators said this was the deadliest attack on journalists in recent history.
The Philippine court ruled that the main members of the Ampatuan family were guilty of the massacre in 2019, but there are still more suspects at large.
