Gunman shoots radio journalist in Philippines

Tue Aug 5, 2008 2:18am EDT

MANILA Aug 5 (Reuters) - A gunman shot and critically wounded a Philippine radio commentator as he walked to a shopping mall in a southern city, police said on Tuesday, adding the attack could be work-related.

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world to work as a journalist. Fifty-seven reporters have been killed since 2001.

Dennis Cuesta was walking with a friend in General Santos late on Monday when a man emerged from behind and shot him five times at close range, the city's police chief Robert Po said.

"Cuesta remains comatose at a local hospital after he was shot in the head, shoulder and hip," Po told reporters, adding the radio commentator had been getting death threats because of his on-air attacks on gambling and drugs.

Cuesta was programme director of Radio Mindanao Network and hosted a daily talk show "Straight to the Point" commenting on corruption, crime and community social issues.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the attack on Cuesta, the fourth on a member of the press this year. Two reports have been killed since January.

Investigative stories about drug trafficking, gambling and other illegal activities in the Philippines often put reporters' lives at risk.

Corruption in the media is also a cause with underpaid journalists sometimes taking bribes to report stories, putting them at risk from revenge attacks by disgruntled paymasters or their rivals.

Under fire for its failure to protect hundreds of journalists and left-wing activists killed over the past seven years, the government has vowed to track down murderers of reporters but there have been few convictions.

In April, the New York-based journalism watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked the Philippines sixth in its index of the world's most dangerous countries for the press. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Jerry Norton)



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