EDITORIAL - Day of mourning

Flags flew at half-mast as France observed a national day of mourning for the 10 journalists and two policemen who were killed in a terrorist attack Wednesday morning in Paris. Three gunmen barged into a newspaper office and picked out staffers for execution. Walking calmly out of the office of the paper Charlie Hebdo, the murderers gunned down the policemen, including one who had his hands up as he lay wounded on the pavement.

Among the dead were the editor and four cartoonists of the paper, known for its satirical treatment of everyone and everything including religious beliefs and – apparently with tragic consequences – Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. The terrorist attack on a soft target has been widely condemned around the world, including by the Philippine government.

Closer to home, violent attacks on Philippine journalists have started early this year. Radio commentator and former Abante correspondent Nerlita Ledesma was waiting for a ride to the Bataan provincial capitol in Balanga City yesterday morning when two men pulled up on a motorcycle and shot her with a .45 caliber pistol. The pair drove away as Ledesma lay dying from four gunshots to the chest.

Initial reports said police were having difficulty in finding eyewitnesses. This has raised fears that Ledesma’s killing will be added to an ever-growing list of unsolved murders targeting journalists, with a number of them perpetrated since President Aquino assumed office.

If confirmed to be work-related, Ledesma’s murder would bring to 172 the number of media workers killed in the line of duty all over the country since the 1986 people power revolt restored democracy, and the 31st under President Aquino. The most atrocious of the attacks was the 2009 massacre of 32 journalists along with 26 other people in Maguindanao in the country’s worst case of election violence.

The principal suspects in the Maguindanao massacre at least are on trial and detained without bail for multiple murder. Too many other journalist killings are unsolved.

The French may do better in bringing to justice the three gunmen in the Paris attack, with the youngest surrendering shortly after the killings. Finding the terrorists is no surefire guarantee that there will be no more attacks on similar targets. But bringing the killers to justice can serve as a major deterrent to more murders and help ease the bereavement of those who lost their loved ones – something that has been denied to those left behind by journalists murdered in the Philippines.