6 July 2005
RADIO HOST MURDERED
If the rising death toll of journalists in the Philippines is any indication, 2005 is turning out to be another dangerous year for media in the country. On 3 July 2005, Rolando Morales became the fifth journalist killed this year after gunmen ambushed him in General Santos City on the island of Mindanao, reported the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Morales, 43, was shot 15 times by gunmen while heading home from work. He had just finished hosting his programme "Voice of the Barangay" on Radio Mindanao Network's dxMD station. Before joining the radio station in 2003, he had been an inspector for a local pineapple plantation and a high-ranking village official.
A father of four, Morales also served on the local anti-crime task force, through which he became aware of illegal drug-related activities. He exposed some of these cases in his radio programme, according to dxMD station manager Alex Josol. Morales also reportedly accused several local officials in General Santos City of involvement in summary executions.
The death toll of journalists in the Philippines this year is approaching record levels, says CMFR. In 2003, a record seven were murdered. Last year, six were killed because of their work.
Despite Philippine government claims that it has solved more than half of journalist murders since 1986, a joint mission by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance in June 2005 found that the official definition of "solved cases" is misleading, that justice has not been served in the vast majority of cases, and that journalists in remote provinces remain vulnerable to fatal attacks.
The joint mission visited Manila and provinces in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, where it met with journalists, victims' families, media executives, press freedom advocates, police and justice officials and local government representatives.
SEAPA and CPJ found that in as many as half of the cases of murdered journalists in the last five years, mayors or other local government officials have been linked to the murders. Many suspects remain at large and few of the actual masterminds have been identified.
The mission also found that a majority of journalists killed in recent years were freelance radio broadcasters based in isolated rural areas.
SEAPA and CPJ say the government's definition of a solved case is too narrow as it refers only to the identification of suspects and the filing of criminal charges against them. "Nothing less than the convictions of killers should be accepted as an indicator of the government's success in this campaign," the IFEX members argue.
Visit:
- CMFR: http://www.cmfr-phil.org/fffj1.htm
- CPJ/SEAPA Statement: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Phil26june05na.html
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Phil05july05na.html
- Journalists' Murders Far From Solved: http://www.seapabkk.org/newdesign/newsdetail.php?No=374
- IFJ Report "A Dangerous Profession": http://www.ifj-asia.org/page/philippinesmr050405.html
- RSF Report on the Philippines: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=13604
- National Union of Journalists in the Philippines: http://www.nujp.org/
- Journalists Urged not to Carry Guns: http://www.cmfr-phil.org/pjr-june2.htm
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