MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Ferdinand&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;Jr on Sunday strongly condemned the&nbsp;killing&nbsp;of a Filipino&nbsp;journalist&nbsp;and ordered the police to conduct an&nbsp;investigation&nbsp;to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The&nbsp;journalist, Juan Jumalon, also known as "DJ Johnny Walker", was shot by unidentified assailants while broadcasting from his home in a southern Philippine town on Sunday morning, the National Union of&nbsp;Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said in a statement, citing initial reports.
"Attacks on&nbsp;journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy, and those who threaten the freedom of the press will face the full consequences of their actions,"&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;said in a post on X platform.
Media watchdog NUJP also condemned the "brazen&nbsp;killing" which it said was caught on a livestream of Jumalon's show. Jumalon's home in Calamba, Misamis Occidental served as his radio station.
Jumalon's&nbsp;killing&nbsp;brings to four the number of&nbsp;journalists killed since&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;took office in June 2022, and to 199 since democracy was restored in the Philippines in 1986. That figure included 32 killed in a single incident in 2009.
The Philippines has one of Asia's most liberal media environments, but it remains one of the world's most dangerous places for&nbsp;journalists, particularly in its provinces.
It ranked as the eighth worst country when it comes to prosecuting killers of&nbsp;journalists, according to 2023 Global Impunity Index released by the Committee to Protect&nbsp;Journalists released this week.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Michael Perry)

you might like

Philippines' Marcos condemns killing of journalist, orders investigation