DJ Johnny Walker , a Filipino radio broadcaster, was shot and killed early on Sunday morning whle doing a live broadcast from his home in the southwest of the country.
Juan Jumalon, 57, was popularly known as DJ Johnny Walker to his followers.
Around 05:30 local time, when DJ Johnny Walker was live-streaming on Facebook, the suspect entered the recording booth and fired a shot. The local media, citing police sources stated that the suspect requested permission to enter Mr. Jumalon’s radio booth with the intention of announcing “something important on air.”
According to authorities, the attacker stole the victim’s gold chain before speeding off on a motorcycle with a companion who had been waiting outside Jumalon’s residence. To identify the gunman and figure out whether the attack was connected to the victim’s job, an investigation was under progress.
The murder took place in the town of Calamba, and the Misamis Occidental police announced on Monday that a special task force was conducting investigations into it. They also released a digital sketch of one of the three potential attackers. He was identified by the police as a medium-built male wearing black pants, a green T-shirt, and a red cap.
DJ Johnny Walker broadcasts episodes of his show to listeners of his Facebook page, 94.7 Gold FM Calamba, and a radio network, from a radio studio in his house. As of Monday, his final live stream had disappeared from his page, but there was footage available that seemed to show DJ pausing in the middle of the broadcast before two shots were fired.
DJ was taken to the hospital by his wife as soon as the tragedy occurred, but it is believed that the doctors declared him dead when they arrived. According to the police, there had never been any threats made against his life.
President Marcos Jr denounced the radio journalist’s death “in the strongest terms”.
In a post on X, the president said that he has given the police orders to launch “a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
“Attacks on 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,” Marcos stated in a statement.
DJ Johnny Walker was the 199th journalist in line
According to US-based Freedom House, Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
DJ Johnny Walker was the 199th journalist to be killed in the Philippines since 1986, when democracy was brought back following the ousting of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the father of the current president, by a “People Power” uprising that drove him and his family into exile in the United States, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a watchdog group for press freedom. “The attack is even more condemnable since it happened at DJ Johnny Walker‘s own home, which also served as the radio station,” the organization stated.
In the Philippines, radio journalists were the target of attacks in recent months. Numerous news sources state that radio personality Cris Bundoquin was shot and killed by two attackers on a motorcycle in May on a Calapan route.
In a brazen attack similar to an execution in the southern Maguindanao province in 2009, members of a strong political clan and its allies shot and killed 58 people, including 32 media personnel. It was the deadliest assault on a journalist in recent history.
Last month, while traveling to his radio station in a suburb of the nation’s capital, Manila, Percival Mabasa, 63, was fatally murdered. Officials stated that he had previously made accusations of corruption against Gerald Bantag, the director general of the Bureau of Corrections. Mabasa was a vocal opponent of Rodrigo Duterte, the previous president.
Philippines Press freedom fears after DJ Johnny Walker gets shot
Rappler is among the few media organizations in the Philippines that criticize the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Authorities in the Philippines have once more ordered the closure of the investigative news website started by Maria Ressa, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The regulator’s decision comes shortly before Duterte steps down from office, and his May election-winning ally Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would be taking over as president. Rappler declared that he would contest the order in court and that it wouldn’t be closing.
“On Wednesday, we’ll carry on with our work and conduct business as usual,” Ms. Ressa told the reporters. “We’ll continue to defend our rights and adhere to the legal system. We’ll keep the line open.” She declared that the site could no longer rely on the rule of law because the decision was the result of incredibly erratic proceedings.
In 2018, the regulatory body initially issued a directive against Rappler, nullifying the news outlet’s accreditation on the grounds that the business had violated foreign ownership regulations in Philippine media by selling its own assets to a foreign corporation.
Ms. Ressa stated that the SEC’s decision was the most recent setback in a six-year campaign by the government in retaliation for Rappler’s investigative journalism.
“We have been harassed, this is intimidation, these are political tactics and we refuse to succumb to them,” she stated.
According to Human Rights Watch, the SEC’s “spurious” action was an attempt to “shut down Rappler, by hook or by crook, and shut up Nobel laureate Maria Ressa.”
Rappler has published extensively about the deadly war on drugs that President Duterte has carried out, as well as critically examining issues of corruption, misogyny, and human rights abuses.
In the Committee to Protect Journalists’ latest “impunity index,” which highlights nations across the globe where journalists are killed and their perpetrators escape punishment, the Philippines comes in at number eight.
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