The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
(NUJP) in condemning the murder on
January 5 of Tatak
NewsNationwide publisher
Christopher Guarin in General Santos City in the southern Philippines.
Guarin
was shot five times in the body and and once in the head by gunmen while
driving his wife and two children home from his office. Police reported that
Guarin was shot along Conel Road in Barangay Lagao at around
10:30 p.m. He was declared dead on arrival at the General Santos
City Hospital. Guarin’s wife was also slightly wounded in the attack.
Police are yet to determine the motive for the killing. However, in an
interview with local radio, Guarin’s wife claimed that her husband had received
several death threats in the days leading up to the murder.
“The IFJ is deeply concerned that 2012 has begun with a continuation of
the increased attacks on media professionals that we saw in the Philippines in 2011,”
IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline
Park said.
“We call upon President Benigno Aquino III to honour his pre-election
commitment to defend press freedom in the Philippines, by seeing that all
media workers’ murders are investigated and punished quickly, irrespective of
potential motives.”
Guarin is the first media worker to have been killed in the Philippines so
far this year. In 2011, six media workers were killed in the Philippines.
Guarin’s death comes soon after the second anniversary of the Ampatuan
Town Massacre on November 23, 2009, in which 32 media workers were killed in a
massacre of 58 people. Fourteen of the media workers killed in the massacre were
from General Santos City.
For further
information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific
on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ
represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries
Find the
IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific
Find the IFJ on
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific