ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 23, 2009) – A Filipino broadcaster was gunned down while on his way to work in Mindanao, reports said on Monday.
Ernie Rollin, who worked for dusty, was killed by two gunmen at around 5.30 a.m. at a parking area near a gas station in Oroquieta City in the province of Misaims Occidental.
Rollin was parking his motorcycle when the masked men attacked him. The victim usually parks his motorcycle in the area and takes a commuter bus for work in Ozamiz City.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack and police said it is still investigating the killing. The motive of the murder is unknown, but Rollin was the eighth journalist killed in the Philippines since last year and the 63rd murdered since 2001 under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's watch.
Media groups condemned the killing of Rullen.
Last December, gunmen also killed a radio commentator Leo Mila in San Roque town in the central Filipino province of Samar. Mila, who worked with the Radyo Natin, was attacked while on his way to work.
The International Press Institute's (IPI) annual World Press Freedom Review released this month said Asia replaced the Middle-East as the deadliest region for journalists last year, with 26 reporters, photographers and editors losing their lives in retaliation for their work or in civil conflicts.
It said though more journalists were killed in Iraq than in any other country in 2008 for the sixth year in a row, Pakistan became the second deadliest place for journalists as chaos gripped the country's politics and conflict spread along the border with Afghanistan.
The annual report by IPI which this year focuses on Asia also shows that in many cases where journalists are murdered, the crimes are often never prosecuted.
”Impunity remains a contagion in the region, particularly in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, but the murderers of journalists are also escaping prosecution in leading democracies such as India,” IPI Director David Dadge said in releasing the report.
“Those who want to stifle free expression and frighten journalists into silence and self-censorship are succeeding because of impunity,” Dadge said.
The IPI listed the following as the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists in 2008 - Iraq (14), Pakistan (6), India, Philippines, Mexico (5 each), Georgia, Russia (4 each), Thailand (3) and Somalia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Croatia (2 each).
IPI includes in its “Death Watch” journalists and media staff who were deliberately targeted because of their profession - either because of their investigative reporting or simply because they were journalists. IPI also includes journalists who were caught in the crossfire while covering dangerous assignments. (Mindanao Examiner)
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