AN outspoken radio journalist has been shot dead while hosting a singing contest in the Philippines.
The Philippines is known as the world’s most dangerous country for journalists.
An unidentified gunman approached Desidario Camangyan, 52, during a village songfest in the small southern city of Mati on Monday night and killed him, police said.
“The victim was about to sit down after emceeing (the contest) when the assassin climbed up the back of the stage and shot him at close range,” said regional police spokesman Senior Superintendent Querubin Manalang.
“It was dark and loud where the shooting took place, so no one really noticed.”
Sen-Supt Manalang said the motive and people behind the murder remained a mystery. “We don’t have suspects yet. That is why we have created a taskforce to find out the full circumstances behind his murder,” Manalang said.
However Camangyan, who worked for local radio station Sunrise FM, was well known for his fearless broadcasts in which he spoke out against the region’s criminal woes, including illegal drugs and gambling.
Powerful interests, whether they be criminal gangs or politicians, are infamous for killing journalists in the Philippines.
The powerful murder the journalists to silence them and intimidate other media workers, with the attackers rarely caught or punished.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 32 journalists were killed in the Philippines in 2009, making it the world’s deadliest country for the media last year.
They included 30 journalists among 57 people who were murdered elsewhere in the southern Philippines in November 2009 in a massacre blamed on a political feud.
At least 137 journalists have been murdered since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, with about 100 of the deaths occurring since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001, press groups say.
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