(RSF/IFEX) – Condemning the continuing threats and violence against radio journalists who report on organised crime and local government corruption, Reporters Without Borders is calling on the police assigned to Task Force USIG to identity the instigators and perpetrators of the two latest cases. Lily Uy, the manager of radio RGMA in the western province […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Condemning the continuing threats and violence against radio journalists who report on organised crime and local government corruption, Reporters Without Borders is calling on the police assigned to Task Force USIG to identity the instigators and perpetrators of the two latest cases.
Lily Uy, the manager of radio RGMA in the western province of Palawan, and several of her employees received threatening SMS text messages on 18 August 2007. “I am getting tired of her,” one of the messages said. “If she does not stop criticizing me, I won’t just rob her shop. I’ll kill her and her family.” Uy owns several stores in Palawan, one of which was recently robbed. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the police were investigating the threats and the robbery.
In a separate incident, Manuel Kong, a commentator on radio DXSN in Surigao (on the southern island of Mindanao), was seriously injured in an apparent murder attempt on 20 August, when a gunman on a motorcycle shot him in the face. He was taken to Cebu for treatment after doctors in Surigao said he needed a complex operation for his throat injury. The police are investigating but have not yet identified any suspects. Kong also worked with legislator Francisco Matugas, who told the press the attack was “political.” (See previous IFEX alert of 22 August 2007).