Published on 8 January 2010

“Nothing seems able to stop the violence against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said today after learning that radio commentator Eugene Paet was wounded in a shooting attack yesterday in a the northern province of Ilocos Sur.

“After a nightmare 2009 culminating in the massacre of 30 journalists by a militia on Mindanao Island, one might have hoped that journalists would stop being the target of killings,” Reporters Without Borders said. “But this attempt to murder a radio presenter marks a deplorable start to 2010 that bodes ill for the rest of the year.”

The press freedom organisation added: “The authorities must, as a matter of urgency, make 2010 the year of an offensive against impunity, and must act with courage and energy against those who bring disgrace on the Philippines by instigating his kind of violence.”

The motive for the attempt to kill Paet is not yet clear but his family said it could be linked to criticism he has expressed on the air. Paet was shot twice very near Bantay police station as he was driving home after work. His assailants were two unidentified men on a motorcycle using a .45 revolver. He was rushed to a Vigan hospital where he was said to be in a stable condition.

Paet hosts talk-shows on a local radio station, DWRS Commando Radio, in which he has often been very critical of corruption, the violence that plagues the Philippines and the culture of impunity. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said DWRS is owned by a local congressman, Ronald Singson.

Last July, a grenade was thrown into the home of Steve Barriero, a columnist with the Ilocos Times, a regional weekly, after he criticised a local politician.

Reporters Without Borders also urges the authorities to provide information about the murder of another radio presenter, Ismael Pasigma, on 24 December. According to the NUJP, he was gunned down while on his way to work in Labason, in Zamboanga del Norte province.

Finally, the press freedom organisation welcomes the fact that the trial of Andal Ampatuan Jr. has begun. Ampatuan is the leading suspect in the massacre of 30 journalists on Mindanao Island on 23 November.