OverviewBy Joel Campagna The conflict in Iraq led to a harrowing number of press attacks in 2004, with local journalists and media support workers primarily in the line of fire. Twenty-three journalists and 16 support staff—drivers, interpreters, fixers, and guards—were killed while on the job in Iraq in 2004. In all, 36 journalists and 18…
The Philippines Although the Philippines has one of the freest presses in Asia, the country was the deadliest in the region for journalists for the second consecutive year. Eight journalists—primarily rural radio broadcasters—were gunned down in retaliation for their work in 2004. (Five reporters died in the line of duty in 2003, according to CPJ…
JULY 3, 2005 Updated: August 10, 2005 Rolando “Dodong” Morales, dxMD KILLED—CONFIRMED The radio commentator was ambushed and shot at least 15 times by a gang of motorcycle-riding assailants while driving home on the southern island of Mindanao. Morales, who died at the scene, had just finished hosting his weekly program on radio dxMD in…
New York, March 2, 2005—A local newspaper columnist was found shot dead on a road in the town of Naic, Cavite Province, just south of Manila. A local village official found the body of Arnulfo Villanueva, 43, a columnist for the community paper Asian Star Express Balita, on the night of February 28, according to…
FEBRUARY 28, 2005 Posted: March 28, 2005 Arnulfo Villanueva, Asian Star Express Balita KILLED—UNCONFIRMED Villanueva, 43, a columnist for the community newspaper, was found shot dead on a road in the town of Naic, Cavite Province, just south of Manila. A local village official found his body on the night of February 28, according to…
New York, February 2, 2005—A key witness in the 2002 murder of Philippine journalist Edgar Damalerio was killed by gunmen in the city of Pagadian this morning—the second witness to be slain while the suspect, a former police officer, awaits trial. Edgar Amoro—who identified former officer Guillermo Wapile as Damalerio’s killer— was gunned down outside…
New York, January 31, 2005—Gunmen shot the publisher of a weekly newspaper four times in the chest as he left his office in Mindanao’s Tagum City on Saturday morning, leaving the journalist critically injured. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the attack on Maximo “Max” Quindao, who also serves as editor of the weekly…
JANUARY 11, 2005 Posted: January 27, 2005 ABS-CBN News ATTACKED A group of armed men torched an ABS-CBN News van in central Manila at around 4:30 a.m. Between five and eight masked gunmen forced members of the eight-person news crew to lie on the ground while they set the van on fire with a Molotov…
The Toll: 1995-2004 Each year in January, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) publishes a list of journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. This list has become the most widely cited press freedom statistic and is often seen as a barometer of the state of global press freedom. While the correlation…