EDITORIAL — Unsafe place for journalists

Three people have reportedly been tagged by police as persons of interest. As of yesterday, however, no one had been apprehended in connection with the murder of yet another journalist on the night of May 21.

Nestor Micator, a news reporter and disc jockey of D’Empire Radio Station in Cotabato’s Pikit town, died from a gunshot to the head fired by one of two men on a motorcycle as he was about to board his motorbike near the Fort Pikit barangay hall in Malidegao town. Reports said the gunmen’s motorcycle had no license plates and the surveillance cameras in the area were not functioning.

Micator’s widow, who was with him and was injured in the attack, said his news reporting had been blamed by three people for their arrest in a drug bust. He also served in the barangay board engaged in conflict resolution in the town.

Press groups count Micator as the 11th media worker killed during the Marcos administration. While probers have yet to establish if the murder was related to Micator’s work as a journalist, the attack once again illustrates the unsafe environment for media workers in this country.

That dangerous environment is aggravated by the failure to catch the perpetrators – both the gunmen and the brains.

The weakness in giving justice to slain journalists has made the country consistently rank among the worst places in the world for media workers, and to rank high in the Impunity Index drawn up by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Securing the conviction of the accused brains and many of the perpetrators behind the 2009 Maguindanao massacre improved the Philippines’ ranking in these global studies. There has been no repeat of a mass killing of journalists, but media workers continue to be murdered across the Philippines. And many of the attacks are either unsolved, or have cases crawling along in the judicial mill.

There is a presidential task force created to promote the safety of media workers and prevent impunity in journalist killings. It should push for speedy justice for Nestor Micator.