Journalists receive death threats (Philippines)

[struggle4progress]

Country/Topic: Philippines
Date: 04 March 2005
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)
Person(s): Lito Salatan, Jun Fuentes
Target(s): journalist(s)
Type(s) of violation(s): death threat
Urgency: Flash
(CMFR/IFEX) - A number of local media practitioners have expressed fear for their lives after receiving death threats. According to a report by "The Philippine Star" newspaper, the threats are reportedly in connection with the journalists' exposés of illegal drug activities in some provinces of Cagayan Valley, northern Philippines.

Lito Salatan, president of the Isabela province press club and the regional police press corps, expressed alarm over the death threats, which have mostly been relayed via text messages to journalists known for their hard-hitting commentaries and exposés on illegal drug activities in the region.

Salatan claimed to have received such messages himself in the past weeks. He was reportedly warned to "go slow" on his commentaries on the proliferation of illegal drugs and to refrain from exposing those suspected to be behind the illegal drug trade.

One of the text messages received by the journalists warned, "Stop writing about and exposing our operations here in Isabela, especially here in Santiago City, if you want to live longer." <snip>

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65091/


Journalist killed in the Philippines

MANILA (dpa) - A Filipino newspaper columnist has been found dead in the Philippines, becoming the first journalist to be killed in the country this year, police said Thursday.
Arnulfo Villanueva, a columnist for the provincial Asian Star Express Balita newspaper, was found dead Monday by the roadside in Naic town, Cavite province, just south of Manila.

Police said Villanueva's body was riddled with bullets.

The motives for the killing were still unclear, but investigators noted that Villanueva had criticised local officials allegedly involved in illegal gambling operations in Cavite. <snip>

http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/fri/mar4w7.htm

[rzemanfl]

1. Just send them to Iraq and have our guys shoot them. n/t

[Erika]

2. A Secret Service agent tried to protect the Italian reporter

which I found patriotic and noble. Reporters, who investigate the news and report the news, are becoming a rarity. One way or the other.