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Gunmen kill radio journalist in Philippines

MANILA : A radio commentator was shot dead on his way to work in the central Philippines on Monday, the fourth jou

Published June 13, 2011 Updated June 13, 2011 11:33am

1 min

By Shoaib Ur Rehman

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Ronnie Olea, 49, a talk-show host on a local radio in Iriga City, was shot twice in the back by two gunmen on a motorcycle, said Cecilio Calleja, police chief in the central Bicol region.

"We're still checking the motive for the murder and find out whether the incident was work-related," Calleja told reporters.

The International Press Institute said that as of March, 98 journalists had been killed in the Philippines since 2000 because of their work.

That tally includes at least 33 in a massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines in November 2009, which the Committee to Protect Journalists says is the world's single deadliest event for journalists.

The Philippines is in third place, behind Iraq and Somalia, on the CPJ's Impunity Index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population. The CPJ says there are 56 unsolved murders of journalists in the Philippines.

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