Romeo Olea's unsolved murder is tragically typical of media killings in the Philippines. Before his death, the radio commentator had received anonymous threats over his reports on local government corruption.
Committee to Protect Journalists
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The investigation into the notorious murder of muckraking Philippine journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat in Mindanao is now seven years old. A separate hunt for conspirators in the January 2011 killing of Palawan radio journalist Gerardo Ortega is just getting started. The Regional Trial Court in Puerto Princesa City issued arrest warrants against three suspects in the Ortega case on Tuesday, and one has been arrested, according to the local Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. But both cases should already have been solved.
Last night, hundreds of journalists and members of New York's press freedom community met at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan for the Committee to Protect Journalists' XXI annual International Press Freedom Awards. At the event--celebrating the extraordinary courage of five journalists from across the globe--guests and award recipients unanimously expressed their commitment to fighting impunity in the murders of journalists.
Jose Pavia, a veteran journalist and tireless
press freedom advocate, died on April 18 in the Philippines. Pavia, known simply as "JLP" among his
friends and journalist colleagues, was a key partner in CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity.
He was 72 and had been battling cancer.
This afternoon we sent out a press release announcing a $100,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity. The campaign enters its third year in 2011, having achieved some significant successes, including high-level commitment to prosecute the killers of journalist in the Philippines and Russia. Our goal in the year ahead is to turn those commitments into results.
Police in the southern Philippine
November 23 marked both an evening of celebration of the courageous and remembrance of the slain: CPJ's annual International Press Freedom Awards fell on the exact one-year anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines, the deadliest attack on the press ever recorded in CPJ history.
Tuesday is the anniversary of the deadliest attack on the press ever recorded by CPJ. On
November 23, 2009, 32 journalists and media workers were shot and killed in a
massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan, in the southern province of Maguindanao. The
victims were part of a convoy accompanying the supporters and relatives of a
local politician filing candidacy papers in the provincial govenrnor's race.
Leo Dacera, a senior state prosecutor and head of the witness protection program for the Philippine Department of Justice, died suddenly on November 4. Initial news reports said Dacera, 54, left, was the victim of an apparent heart attack. Dacera's untimely death is a tremendous blow to all those seeking to end the culture of impunity in Philippine journalist murders.
About 18 hours after eight hostages and the gunmen holding
them in a tourist bus were killed in a shootout with
police in the heart of Manila, officials broke away from the demands of the
moment to meet with a CPJ delegation in the president's offices at Malacañang
Palace. Justice
Secretary Leila de Lima was also scheduled to attend, but she was laid up
in the hospital, suffering from pneumonia and exhaustion. With the ugly
resolution of the hostage situation--it happened less than a mile from Malacañang--President
Benigno Aquino understandably had pressing matters to attend to.
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