Philippines
The killer of Juan Jumalon, 57, pretended to be a listener as he entered his home studio in Misamis Occidental province
Associated Press in Manila
A radio host in the southern Philippines was fatally shot in his studio in a brazen attack witnessed by people watching the broadcast live on Facebook.
The gunman gained access to the home radio station of Juan Jumalon, a provincial news station also known as DJ Johnny Walker, by posing as a listener. He then shot him twice during a morning broadcast in the city of Calamba, Misamis Occidental province, police said.
The attacker grabbed the victim’s gold necklace and then fled on a motorcycle with a companion who had been waiting outside, police said. An investigation is underway to identify the shooter and determine whether the attack was work-related.
The Philippines has long been considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. strongly condemned the shooting and said he had ordered national police to track down, arrest and prosecute the killers.
“Attacks on journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy and those who threaten press freedom must face the full consequences of their actions,” Marcos said in a statement.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a press freedom watchdog, said Jumalon was the 199th journalist killed in the country since 1986, when democracy returned after a “people power” uprising defeated dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the Father of the Current, had overthrown President and forced him and his family into exile in the USA.
“The attack is all the more reprehensible as it occurred in Jumalon’s own home, which also served as a radio station,” the watchdog said.
A video of the attack shows Jumalon, 57, pausing and looking up at something away from the camera before two shots are fired. As background music plays, he falls back in his chair. He was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.
The attacker was not seen on the Facebook livestream and police said they were checking whether surveillance cameras installed in the home and on his neighbors’ properties recorded anything.
In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their allies shot and killed 58 people, including 32 media workers, in an attack in the southern province of Maguindanao. It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.
While the mass killings were later linked to electoral violence common in many rural areas, they also highlighted the threats faced by journalists in the Philippines. An excess of unlicensed weapons and private armies controlled by powerful clans, as well as weak law enforcement in rural areas, are among the security concerns facing journalists in the poverty-stricken country.
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