Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the murder of public radio reporter Carmelo Palacios in the northern province of Nueva Ecija on 17 April and a shooting attack south of Manilla today on Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Delfin Mallari and radio DZMM reporter Johnny Glorioso, in which Mallari was injured. Police said Palacios’ murder was probably linked to his work as a journalist.
Press Statement
18 April 2007
The Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom (AZCPF) strongly condemns the recent attacks on media people and journalists. The assassins want to prevent the media from bringing to the public the true state of the nation and the criminal activities being committed by those in power.
MANILA — This week marks another dark period for press freedom in the Philippines, with the murder of a colleague, the attempted murder of another and a libel case filed by a governor against yet another.
Carmelo Palacios, 41, field reporter of the government-run Radyo ng Bayan, was found dead in Sta. Rosa town, Nueva Ecija, Wednesday morning, his body battered and shot in the chin. He was the 51st journalist to be killed under the Arroyo administration’s increasingly blood-drenched watch, and the third this year.
MANILA — Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran slammed anew Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez for the latter’s rude and boorish behavior when Gonzalez dialogued with officials of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) this afternoon. Gonzalez himself said that he told the IPU officials Canadian Senator Sharon Carstairs, IPU secretary-general Anders Johnson and IPU HR committee secretary Ingeborg Schwarz to ‘go home’ and ‘stop meddling in the Philippines’ affairs.’
MANILA — The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the latest attack on the media by forces out to silence the truth in the country. This time motorcycle riding assailants attacked Delfin ?Sonny? Mallari Jr., a correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and has covered stories of peasants in the area and is close to KMP. According to Danilo ?Ka Daning? Ramos, secretary general of KMP, ?what they did to Sonny was despicable and dastardly, Sonny was just out performing his job as a straight reporter and a very good one at that,?