Dennis Cuesta

Eliminating witnesses has become an all too easy and eff ective method of stymying justice when journalists are assassinated. By Elisabeth Witchel

Top Developments• Maguindanao massacre underscores deep-seated climate of impunity.• Local and international groups mobilize to offer aid, seek justice. Key Statistic 29: Journalists slain in a politically motivated ambush, the single deadliest event ever recorded by CPJ. In the deadliest event for the press ever recorded by CPJ, 29 journalists and two media support workers…

New York, September 23, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists applauds a Philippine Supreme Court decision to grant a change of venue in the trial of a defendant in the attempted murder of radio journalist Nilo Labares, who was shot and injured in Cagayan de Oro City in March. The transfer is the third venue change…

September 2009  News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

This week, CPJ’s Shawn W. Crispin examined the incredible risks and challenges confronting witnesses to journalist murders in the Philippines. Crispin’s report, “Under Oath, Under Threat,” featured Bob Flores, a man who has demonstrated extraordinary courage in identifying a gunman in the slaying of radio journalist Dennis Cuesta. Crispin and I had met Flores earlier…

The shooting death last year of Radio Mindanao Network broadcaster Dennis Cuesta raised the realization among journalists here that the profession we know and love could cost us life and limb. 

Four years after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo moved to create a police task force dedicated to investigating journalist murders, CPJ research showed the impunity rate in these cases remained about 90 percent, one of the highest in the world. A CPJ study into slain journalists worldwide found that the absence of justice tended to promote a…

New York, November 17, 2008–A gunman on a motorcycle shot radio commentator Arecio Padrigao in southern Gingoog city today, according to international news reports. The journalist died en route to the hospital.

All the major Philippine news outlets are covering the news this morning of the shooting death of another possible journalist. Inquirer.net, GMA News, The Mindanao Examiner, and ABS CBN are all covering the news that Ronaldo Anjo Julia, who may have been a part-time radio broadcaster, was shot and killed by gunman on a Manila…

Last week, two Philippine radio broadcasters were killed, gunned down in broad daylight on busy city streets. The murders, only four days apart, highlighted the continuing vulnerability of journalists here and the government’s inability to protect them. The broadcasters were shot in separate, unrelated incidents. But the killings were eerily similar to other journalist slayings…