EDITORIAL - Shooting the messenger

The nation boasts of having Asia’s freest press, and critics say the freedom borders on licentiousness. Yet the country is also a dangerous place for journalists, as the annual report of international press watchdogs show. The end of martial law did not mean an end to the execution of journalists in this country. The risks are highest for journalists based outside Metro Manila, where political warlords often control police and military officials as well as members of the judiciary. In such areas, public officials believe in silencing nosy, pesky journalists – permanently.

The other day yet another journalist was felled by a bullet. No motive for the killing of Rowell Endrinal has been established so far, but colleagues believe the murder in Legazpi City had something to do with his work as a hard-hitting political commentator in radio station dzRC, publisher of the local weekly Metro News and coordinator for Albay of the Publishers Association of the Philippines. Reports said Endrinal had been vocal in his criticism of jueteng operations in Albay.

Last year, two other journalists were gunned down in the Bicol Region. In recent years, two other broadcast journalists from Legazpi City were also murdered. Elsewhere in the country, media outfits have also been attacked. Radio station dzRH reported that one of its affiliate stations in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur was shot up by unidentified men early last Wednesday. There were no casualties.

People who think the best way to silence media criticism is through the bullet can hardly be expected to respect press freedom. Such people, however, can learn their lesson if they are made to pay for their crimes. And this can be done by arresting the killers and the masterminds, convicting them and sending them to prison. The murder of Endrinal must not be added to the nation’s long list of unsolved crimes.