Society suffers every time a journalist is killed — int'l media group
MANILA, Philippines — All of society suffers each time a journalist is silenced.
The secretary general of the International Federation of Journalist stressed this point as the organization released its annual report on journalists and media staff killed in the course of their duties last year.
Ninety-five journalists and media professionals lost their lives in targeted killings, bomb attacks or crossfire incidents in 2018, according to the report titled “In the Shadow of Violence.”
The report noted that Yemen, India, Mexico, Afghanistan and Syria recorded the most devastating toll and that South Asia is now the world’s most dangerous region for journalists.
Anthony Bellanger, IFJ secretary general, said the increase in killings takes place in the context of “an increasing polarization of views across the world with the rise of dangerous nationalist and populist forces in many countries and the stigmatization of journalists and media by politicians and the enemies of media freedom.”
“Every time a journalist is killed, it is not just the individual, the family, the media which suffers. Society is increasingly denied its right to the free flow of information and views as journalists—fearful for their lives—are silenced by the assassin’s gun,” Bellanger said.
Killings in the Philippines
Three of the 32 killed in the Asia Pacific region were journalists from the Philippines.
“Despite the ongoing criticisms of the Philippine government’s efforts to stem the tide of journalist killings, there has been no letup. Another three broadcasters were shot dead,” the report read.
In May last year, radio broadcaster Edmund Sestoso was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. He died the following day, two days before the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day.
A month later, Dennis Denora, a community paper publisher from Davao del Norte, was gunned down. His colleagues said Denora was “known for his fearless forecasts both in newspaper and radio.”
Joey Llana, a blocktimer of radio station dwZR in Legazpi City, Albay was killed in July last year. He was on his way to host his radio program when he was ambushed.
“Under the current president Rodrigo Duterte, 12 journalists have been murdered since mid-2016… Eleven of the 12 killings happened before Duterte marked his second year in office, the highest number of journalist murders in the first two years of any Philippine president,” National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chair Nonoy Espina was quoted in the report as saying.
In a report published by IFJ last December, the Philippines is the worst in impunity in Southeast Asia. It scored the Philippines a 7.7 out of 10 on the media impunity scale. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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