EDITORIAL - Shooting the messenger

Barely a week after the observance of World Press Freedom Day, another journalist was murdered in the Philippines. The death of Edgardo Damalerio came just days after the country for the first time served as host for activities marking World Press Freedom Day. Damalerio, managing editor of the weekly Zamboanga Scribe and a commentator on dxKP radio, was fatally shot by a man on a motorcycle in Pagadian City Monday night. Reports said Damalerio had been denouncing corruption involving politicians and policemen in Pagadian.

Damalerio was the second journalist to be murdered in the city in as many years. In 2000, broadcaster Jun Halapit was also gunned down by a man on a motorcycle. The killer has not been caught. Since the 1980s 38 journalists have been killed in the Philippines, and all the murders remain unsolved, according to the Philippine Press Institute. In Damalerio’s case, reports said four men were apprehended Tuesday night in a raid on a house in Pagadian, but the suspected ringleader escaped. The men have been charged with illegal possession of firearms.

The murders – and the failure of authorities to solve them – are a blot on a country that takes pride in having one of the freest mass media in Asia. Journalists in this country may be free to write what they want, but there are also people who think they are free to harass, intimidate and even permanently silence the press. The most vulnerable are journalists working in areas controlled by well-entrenched political kingpins, who are so powerful they can even discourage the police from going after a journalist’s assassin.

Harassment and death threats are hazards of the journalism profession. But this doesn’t mean governments should just sit back and allow journalists to be gunned down. This doesn’t mean the investigation of a journalist’s murder should be perfunctory, with the unsolved case eventually relegated to police archives. Democracy needs a free press, and a democratic government – especially one that owes its existence to the power of the people – should do its utmost to protect journalists, whether they are the bearers of good or bad news.