A news reporter has been shot dead by a gunman inside his home in southern Philippines, the latest media worker to be killed in a country notoriously unsafe for journalists, police and media watchdogs said Sunday.
The gunman shot reporter Orlando Dinoy six times after forcibly entering his home at around 6 p.m. on Saturday, but the motive remained unclear, authorities said.
The killing of Dinoy, who worked for Newsline Philippines and as an anchor for Energy FM, a radio station, brought to 21 the number of journalists slain in the Philippines since the Duterte administration took power in 2016.
The Southeast Asian country has one of the world’s poorest reputations for safeguarding journalists and punishing the killers of reporters.
Mr. Dinoy was shot six times by a gunman who barged into his apartment in Bansalan town, Mindanao island, local police chief, Major Peter Glenn Ipong, said.
Mr. Dinoy died immediately, he added.
Officers were still investigating possible motives, the force added.
“One of the angles we are looking at is his work as a media man… but no one can give us a concrete lead so far,” Maj. Ipong told AFP.
National police chief, General Guillermo Eleazar, ordered a thorough investigation into the case, and vowed to protect the media from attacks.
In a report this month, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists listed the Philippines at seventh place in its Global Impunity Index, with 13 murders of journalists still unsolved.
The nation has been a mainstay in the annual index since it started in 2008. (Source: The Straits Times)