Duterte to UN rapporteur: Go home and get some sleep

DAVAO CITY – Go home and get some sleep.

This was President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s reply to the United Nations (UN) rapporteur who accused him of “inciting violence” after he made his controversial remarks on media killings

“Go home and get some sleep. You are overworked and sound beat,” Duterte said in a statement sent to the media Wednesday by his spokesman Salvador Panelo.  

“Your statement is anchored on the wrong premise. I never said that killing journalists is justified because they are involved in corruption,” he added.

Duterte reiterated that one does not need to be a journalist to be assassinated.

“There are many cases where journalists are killed by reason of their advocacies but there are those who are killed because they take sides and accept bribes and renege on their commitments,” the incoming president said.

“The noble vocation of journalism does not apply to extortionists and criminals,” he added.

'Uphold and enforce the law'

Duterte was criticized by media groups after saying that some of the slain journalists had received bribes or were involved in shady deals.

While some journalists interpreted Duterte’s statement as a declaration that corrupt media workers are “legitimate targets,” his spokesman said the incoming president was just misunderstood. Panelo said Duterte was merely reminding the media that there are journalists who are using the profession to extort money.

On Tuesday, two UN experts asked Duterte to “stop inciting violence” and scored him for what they described as “irresponsible” statement.

Cristof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, said Duterte’s message “amounts to incitement to violence and killing, in a nation already ranked as the second-deadliest country for journalists."

These comments are irresponsible in the extreme, and unbecoming of any leader, let alone someone who is to assume the position of the leader of a country that calls itself democratic," he added.

David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom opinion and expression, said justifying the killing of journalists on the basis of how they conduct their professional activities “can be understood as a permissive signal to potential killers that the murder of journalists is acceptable in certain circumstances and would not be punished."

"Such provocative messages indicate to any person who is displeased by the work of a journalist or an activist, for example, that they can attack or kill them without fear of sanction," he added.

Duterte, however, lashed at the UN experts, saying they are “more adept at fumigation, sometimes also known as 'foul or idiocy.'”

“I do not condone nor tolerate killing of journalists regardless of the motive of the killers or the reason for their killing,” Duterte said.

"My duty as President is to uphold and enforce the law and I will pursue and prosecute these killers to the hilt in accordance with law,  and I will be - as I have been - protective of the rights of journalists, and for that matter of any citizen, of the Republic,” he added.