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Monday, April 04, 2005
Editorial: Culture of violence
JOURNALISTS all over the country are fast becoming easy targets for hired assassins whose bosses are out to silence the press.
Last month's cold-bloodied assassination of Marlene Esperat, a lady columnist of a local newspaper in Tacurong City, has again added another entry in the growing list of murdered press people.
The alacrity of these assassins to snuff the life out of members of one of the pillars of democracy has gain international denunciations and yet the government, with all its vast resources, has failed to prosecute and put behind bars even one single suspect in the more than sixty (60), and still counting, cases of media killings over the last 20 years.
While we in the media profession do not demand special treatment, it is incumbent upon government authorities to expedite the solution of these cases of media killings.
Members of press have been regularly reporting all other murder incidents in their respective communities that, oftentimes, help police authorities solve these crimes.
But when members of the media are now themselves targets of these work-related assassinations, who will report for themselves?
We in the local media have always been saying that the culture of violence around us has precipitated the emergence of assassins who are out to eliminate members of the press critical of some public officials and not a few government policies.
Until the government has proven its resolve to bring justice to our all our fallen colleagues, we will always harbor the thoughts that these murderous sprees are tacitly tolerated to keep from doing our jobs.
But whoever is behind these assassinations should not make a mistake about them because for every crusading journalist killed in line of duty, there will be ten more who will take over their places.
The more they are going to silence the press, the more it will speak their voices out loud and sharpen its pen.
For Bisaya stories from General Santos. Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(April 4, 2005 issue)
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