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Philippine journalist shot dead while watching TV in a store

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – A gunman shot dead a journalist watching TV at a store in a central Philippine city, in a blatant attack in what has long been considered one of the country’s deadliest. world for journalists.

Jesus Malabanan, a 58-year-old provincial reporter for the Manila Standard newspaper, died while being taken to the hospital after being shot in the head by one of two men on a motorbike Wednesday night at a family shop. which he is looking after in Calbayog city in Samar province, police and officials said on Thursday.

The suspects have escaped and a police investigation is underway to determine the identity and motive of the attack.

Media watchdog groups have condemned the murder, including those of Malabanan’s colleagues in Pampanga, a province north of Manila where he lived and worked for many years as a news reporter. and is a close manager for Reuters.

A media protection agency set up by President Rodrigo Duterte strongly condemned the killing and vowed to arrest the killers. However, Mr. Duterte himself has long been on the radar of media watchdogs and human rights groups, which have repeatedly condemned him for compensating police forces who have carried out their actions. His campaign to crack down on illegal drugs left thousands of suspects, mostly young, dead.

Dozens of journalists have been killed or attacked under Duterte and his predecessors. In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their associates shot down 58 people, including 32 media workers, in a brazen execution-style attack in Maguindanao province, The south of this country terrified the whole world.

Although the ensuing mass murder was linked to a violent election competition common in many rural areas, it also highlights the threats journalists in the Philippines face. The proliferation of unlicensed guns and private armies controlled by powerful clans and weak law enforcement in rural areas are among the security concerns journalists face. faced in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

Thirty-two of those shot down in the Maguindanao town of Ampatuan were local reporters and media workers. The media watchdog said it was the only attack against journalists in recent history.

A Philippine court has found key members of the Ampatuan family guilty of mass murder in 2019 but many other suspects remain.

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