Monday, May 09, 2005
Suspects plead innocent in murder of woman journalist (1:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- Four men accused of killing a Filipino journalist known for digging into government corruption pleaded not guilty Monday, a court official said.
The suspects, including an army sergeant, were arrested separately last month on charges of murdering Marlene Esperat, 45, a columnist for The Midland Review, at her home in southern Tacurong city in March.
The accused included the suspected gunman, a lookout and two accomplices, said Marianita Seguia, acting clerk of the Tacurong Regional Trial Court.
Details of their indictments were not immediately available.
Esperat was the third journalist slain this year, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said. Last week, a broadcaster died after being shot by unidentified assailants in the southern Philippines.
Since democracy was restored to the Philippines in 1986, 67 journalists have been killed - 23 of them in the past three years alone, the NUJP said. The mostly unsolved deaths prompted the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists to describe the Philippines as the world's "most murderous" country for reporters.
National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil on Friday said journalists would be allowed to carry guns for self-defense and could be assigned police bodyguards on request.
But NUJP chairwoman Inday Espina Varona condemned the police decision, saying authorities needed to arrest, prosecute and convict the murderers, not arm journalists.(AP) |
