Unidentified
gunmen killed Richard Nadjid in the town of Bongao on May 4, 2014, while he was
returning from an
evening basketball game, news reports citing the local police chief Senior
Superintendent Joselito Salido said.
Nadjid was the
station manager of dxNN 92.5 Powermix FM and hosted a morning news and public
affairs program for the station, according to the Philippines-based press
freedom advocacy group the Center for Media Freedom and
Responsibility (CMFR) and the Philippines Center for Investigative
Journalism. Prior to working
for dxNN, Nadjid worked as a reporter for dxGD, an AM radio station based in
Jolo, Sulu, reports said. He worked there for almost seven years, Babylyn
Kano-Omar, Nadjid’s colleague, told CMFR.
Prior to assuming
his role as the station manager for dxNN in 2013, Nadjid lost a bid to become
town councilor, according to Kano-Omar.
Kano-Omar also told
CMFR that Nadjid had volunteered to act as a witness in police inventories conducted
immediately after some drug bust operations. Philippine law mandates that at
least one media practitioner act as witness in drug bust inventories. Kano-Omar
said this was one angle the police were looking into as the motive behind the
killing.
Bongao
is located in the southernmost province of Tawi-Tawi which is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in
the Philippines, an area where armed groups, outlaws and Islamic extremists are
known to be active, according to reports.