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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
RP dangerous for journalists: French media
THE Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF or Reporters Without Borders) expressed alarm Monday over the continuing assassinations of Filipino journalists and described the Philippines as the "second most dangerous country for journalists after Iraq."
"We are really alarmed and worried about what is happening in the Philippines. We hope the continuing killings of journalists here will stop and their killers will be put in jail," said RSF news editor Jean-Francois Julliard.
RSF is a Paris-based media organization that defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It has nine national sections in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.
Julliard and RSF Asia-Pacific Desk director Vincent Brossel arrived in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat last Sunday to monitor investigations on the killing of Marlene Garcia Esperat, a hard-hitting columnist who was shot dead by an unidentified gunman inside her house in Barangay New Isabela, Tacurong City on March 23.
"If the killers of the journalists will not be arrested, we have the feeling that more journalists will be killed in this country," Julliard said.
The RSF said six Filipino journalists were killed in 2004 and 16 others were either physically attacked or threatened.
Brossel said though the Philippine authorities are doing their best to bring justice to media slayings, he said that more effort should be exerted to really arrest the gunmen and to speed up trials. (RCB with Ramil Bajo)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 12, 2005 issue)
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