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Gunmen kill tabloid columnist in Philippines

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-17 16:58

MANILA -- Two men on a motorcycle chased and killed a community newspaper commentator on a remote island in the central Philippines, a press watchdog said on Wednesday, the fifth journalist murdered in the country this year.

Antonio Castillo was shot at close range by two men after a brief chase in Uson town on Masbate island on June 12, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said in a statement.

Castillo, a columnist for community paper "Bigwas" (Blow), died while being treated at a hospital, but he was able to give the identity of his attackers to investigators, CMFR said, quoting Uson town police chief Aurora Moran.

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"It was possible the killing was work-related," Luis Teodoro, a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines and CMFR deputy director, told Reuters.

"Of course, we're getting alarmed. In a span of just a week, we have two journalists killed for reporting and commenting on alleged corruption at the community level. Government must do more to discourage violence against journalists."

Three days before Castillo's murder, radio host Crispin Perez was shot dead in front of his house in San Jose City on Mindoro island, also in the central Philippines.

Teodoro said Perez hosted two talk shows at a state-owned radio station in Occidental Mindoro province and had strongly criticised local mining and energy interests in the province.

He said it took his group several days to determine whether the murder of the two journalists was work-related.

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists -- five were murdered last year while 59 have been killed since 2001, based on records from the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines.

But Teodoro's group said 65 journalists, the majority of them radio announcers and commentators, had been killed since 2001. Of the 65 cases, 40 were work-related, he said.

Investigative stories about drug trafficking, gambling, corruption and other illegal activities involving officials in the Philippines often put reporters at risk.

Corruption in the media, with underpaid journalists sometimes taking bribes to report stories, also places reporters in danger from disgruntled paymasters or their rivals.

Under fire from local and international human rights groups for its failure to protect hundreds of journalists and left-wing activists killed over the past seven years, the government has vowed to track down killers of reporters but there have been few convictions.