The professional membership of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand condemns the murder of the prominent Philippine journalist Jesus “Jess” Malabanan, who was shot in the head inside his home on Samar Island by unidentified gunmen on the evening of 8 December.
We call on the Philippine National Police to thoroughly investigate this apparent extrajudicial killing and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Malabanan was a correspondent for Manila Standard Today and had been a stringer for Reuters for many years, based in Pampanga Province on Luzon. He had worked on the agency’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Colleagues there said Reuters had helped Malabanan relocate to Calbayog City in Samar Province after he had received death threats.
He is the 22nd journalist killed in the Philippines since Duterte became president in 2016. In October, another reporter was shot dead in his home in the south of the country. Early in his presidency, Duterte threatened to "kill journalism," declaring reporters "sons of whores" and stating: “Just because you're a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch.”
Malabanan’s murder coincided with the arrival in Norway of Philippine Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, who was granted permission by the Court of Appeal to attend the prize ceremony, despite being on bail as she appeals against her conviction in a cyber-libel case. The news site, Rappler, which she co-founded, reported that the Duterte government had sought to block her travelling to Oslo, alleging that she was a flight risk. Ressa has been also been indicted on tax violation charges.
Speaking on arrival, Ressa urged fellow reporters to defend their rights in order not to lose them to what she called “authoritarian-style leaders and budding dictators.”
“It has become incredibly hard and far more dangerous for every one of us,” she said. Within hours, reports emerged that Malabanan had been murdered.
Like him, Ressa has been a staunch critic of President Duterte and his drug war in which human rights groups believe as many as 30,000 Filipinos may have been killed. The tally includes many lawyers, human rights activists and environmental defenders, as well as journalists.
The Philippines is currently ranked 138th in the world for press freedom, according to a list compiled by Reporters Sans Frontières.
Our colleagues in the Philippines have shown immense courage and determination in continuing to cover human rights violations and extrajudicial killings committed on Duterte’s watch. The FCCT urges other governments to take note of the mortal dangers facing Filipino journalists, with whom we stand in solidarity. We also urge the government of President Duterte to stop harassing journalists and to ensure that the killers of journalists face justice.
(Photo courtesy of Tonette Orejas)
