Gunmen kill community newspaper editor in the northern Philippines

[News_Editor]

Gunmen kill community newspaper editor in the northern Philippines

2011-10-09 06:37:44 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANILA (BNO NEWS) -- An editor-in-chief of a community newspaper was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the northern Philippines on early Friday morning, local police said on Saturday.

Johnson Pascual, who works for a local paper called "Prime News" in the northern province of Isabela, was driving when the two suspects shot him in the head and body early Friday morning. "[The shooting of the victim] caused his vehicle [to] plunge into the ravine that caused his instantaneous death," Chief Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia said.

Investigators said the assailants fled the scene. An operation has been launched to capture the attackers and determine if the crime was related to the victim's work as a journalist, GMA News reported.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killing. Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, said in a statement: "We condemn the murder of Johnson Pascual and are concerned that he will become just another poorly investigated, unprosecuted crime, the sort that is commonplace in the Philippines."

"Over the decades, the killing of journalists and other citizens has not been successfully addressed by the Philippines government, and that reality is continuing under the presidency of Benigno Aquino," Dietz said.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a total of 146 journalists have been killed in work-related cases in the Philippines since 1986, when democracy was restored in the country.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-10-09

[markprotti]

why is this happening just because he was doing his duties ..

[mazd2]

Because it's the philippines mate!