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Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières
Press release
April 10, 2008
Newspaper columnist gunned down in Manila suburb
Reporters Without Borders is shocked by the murder of newspaper journalist Benefredo Acabal on 7 April in a Manila suburb and calls on the authorities to do everything possible to establish the motives and bring those responsible to justice. Acabal, 34, was a columnist for The Pilipino Newsmen, a local paper.
He was shot five times at close range by a man on a motorcycle and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. The police officer in charge of the case, Lardy Ignacio, said it was too soon to say if the murder was linked to the victim's work as a journalist. The police are looking into the possibility that it was linked to Acabal's involvement in a trucking business.
Because of the frequency with which journalists are physically attacked or murdered in the Philippines, the authorities created a special police unit to investigate cases of violence against the press. Acabal was the first journalist to be murdered this year in the Philippines.
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
47 rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@rsf.org
www.rsf.org