Bangkok—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Philippine
authorities to investigate the murder on Saturday of radio journalist Maurito
Lim and bring the assailant to justice.
A gunman shot Mr. Lim once in the head at around 11 a.m.
after the journalist arrived for his regular "Chairman Mao On Board"
news program at dyRD radio station in Bohol province's Tagbilaran City,
according to news reports. The assailant fled the scene on a motorcycle, the
reports said.
Mr. Lim underwent emergency surgery at Tagbilaran City's
Governor Celestino Gallares Hospital for a bullet wound in his jaw and face,
but died in the afternoon, news reports said.
Police said they were examining closed-circuit television
camera footage of the scene to identify the gunman, news reports said. Police
also said they were investigating whether Lim's death was related to his
journalism
Leo Udtuhan, vice chairman of the Tagbilaran branch of
the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, told reporters that Lim's
broadcast reports often alleged local official involvement in the illegal drug
trade, according to news reports.
“Maurito Lim's murder shows that the killers of
journalists are as emboldened as ever under President Benigno Aquino's watch,”
said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. “The
Philippines will remain one of the world's most dangerous places to be a
journalist until President Aquino's government shows stronger resolve in
prosecuting cases like Lim's and breaking the cycle of impunity in all media
murders.”
Mr. Aquino said in an October 2014 speech that his
government aimed to stop attacks on the press “until this number reaches zero,”
according to news reports. At least nine journalists have been killed for their
work since Mr. Aquino was elected president in May 2010, according to CPJ
research. In the same period, 18 reporters, including Lim, have been killed in
cases where the motive is unclear.
The Philippines ranks third on CPJ's Impunity Index, a
global measure of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country's
population. More journalists have been killed in direct relation to their work
in the Philippines than anywhere apart from Iraq and Syria since CPJ began
keeping detailed records in 1992. (CPJ)
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