MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has strongly denounced the killing of Filipino journalist Juan Jumalon, also known as “DJ Johnny Walker,” and has instructed the police to launch an investigation to apprehend the culprits. Jumalon was shot by unidentified attackers while broadcasting from his residence in a southern Philippine town on Sunday morning, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in an initial statement.
Marcos expressed his firm stance against attacks on journalists, asserting that such actions will not be tolerated in a democratic society. He emphasized that those who threaten press freedom will face the full consequences of their actions. The president made this statement on X platform, a popular social media platform.
The NUJP, a media watchdog, also condemned the audacious killing, noting that it was captured on a livestream of Jumalon’s show. Jumalon’s home in Calamba, Misamis Occidental served as his radio station.
With Jumalon’s death, the number of journalists killed since Marcos assumed office in June 2022 has risen to four, and since the restoration of democracy in the Philippines in 1986, the number now stands at 199. Shockingly, this figure includes 32 journalists who were killed in a single incident in 2009.
Although the Philippines boasts one of Asia’s most liberal media environments, it remains one of the most perilous places for journalists, particularly in rural areas. The country ranked eighth in the 2023 Global Impunity Index, which measures the degree to which journalists’ killers are prosecuted, as highlighted by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Karen Lema reporting; Edited by Michael Perry.
