Philippines
Newspaper chief editor gunned downPosted Oct 14 2011
The editor-in-chief of a local newspaper in the Philippines was gunned down on the morning of Oct.7, according an article from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
CPJ has called on Philippine authorities to investigate the case. The victim, Johnson Pascual, was the editor-in-chief of local paper Prime News, circulated in Quirino province, according to the report from the Malina Times. The article also noted that the victim is the manager of a rural bank located in the same province.
Pascual was driving his car when the suspect on a motorcycle fired shots at him through the driver’s window, according the Malina Times article. The shots killed him instantly.
Police launched an investigation into the incident to discover if the killing is related to his newspaper position or his work as a bank manager, according to The Malina Times. Whether the murder is related to Pascual’s job as a journalist was not known.
Pascual is 10th in the list of journalists killed since President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd was sworn into office on July 1, 2010, The Malina Times wrote. Not long before, a Philippines radio commentator was shot dead on Aug. 22.
CPJ data for 2011 shows that four journalists have been killed in the Philippines as a result of violent attacks, but according to investigations, only two of them have been killed because of their work as journalists.