Reporters Without Borders: 12 Journalists killed

[SealLion]

The title for this article was too long again to fit into the Subject title. So the real title for the article from the website is:

Twelve journalists killed on Mindanao island in "dark day for press freedom"

Check it out:

At least 12 journalists were killed today in Maguindanao province (on the southern island of Mindanao) by armed men, including two policemen, linked to the province’s governor, a supporter of President Gloria Arroyo. More than 30 other people were murdered. Some of the victims were beheaded.

Didn't I just make a thread about police corruption not long ago??

So journalists are having their lives taken from them again. .....

let's have a peek to see what it's about...

......This time, the frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodbath

thugs again, I see.
How bloody sick.
No room for mercy even for journalists. But that doesn't surprise me even.

Journalists, who investigate too far and too deep have these sort of horrible things happen to them.

It's not just journalists who investigate into things.
Some journalists are very much into spreading the word about all the 'bad' things that happen in their region, to the rest of the world.

It's just that the rest of the world doesn't hear about these sort of things because the news is prevented in one fashion or another.

Sometimes, people need to be killed.
I mean, how else do you get rid of the 'problem'.
Well, I guess that's where you gotta kill people, right??

And then of course, when you have things like 12 journalists being massacred, word definitively get's out.

Then the rest of the world knows about the crap that happens.

But these people, or journalists since that is what their profession is, were on their way to an electoral bureau to file a candidacy for another person...

That seems ok, yes??
I mean,....all their doing is bringing a candidacy of another person into an election.
Seems like nothing would be wrong about that, yes??

Oooopss. not so.....I guess:

.....a police inspector ...... kidnapped members of a large convoy of supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu, an ...... opponent who wants to run for governor.

So now we've got cops who do the kidnapping.
I guess regular kidnappers don't need to kidnap anymore.
The cops have taken over the kidnapping business, I see.

And it's not just the cops....

....The governor’s son is also alleged to have been involved in the massacre.

And they all wanted to prevent the convoy of supporters of another candidate for governor's office until the guys with guns showed up.

The convoy of .... supporters, accompanied by journalists, had been on its way to an electoral bureau to file documents related to (a) candidacy, which ... gunmen wanted to prevent

and then this:

.....the vice-president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Told Reporters Without Borders: “The government must without question bring those responsible for this massacre to justice, not just the killers but also the masterminds, whoever they are.”

Ya. Like that'll happen.

Isn't the government already in control in that region??

...ya....like the government is going to investigate itself for killing people that went to an electoral beuarue to make a candidacy for another person to run as governor.

Most likely not.

I believe the governor's office is an allie of the President of the Philippines. That's what the article says and I quoted that too at the top (first quote).

Here's the link:

Reporters Sans Frontières

After having read this article, it reminds me a lot of what the Israeli Army does to journalists who, as I've briefly made mention of above, do to journalists who dig too far and too deep.

They do the same thing to journalists there.
Though, heaven forbid you'd ever hear about it.

Heaven forbid, someone from the Israeli Army there would even be prosecuted for it.

[shadowww]

Never heard for Mindanao island before, shame on me, considering that's not too small.

I have absolutely no idea whats going on there so its hard to comment. Its tough to be a journalist in such area for sure.

Well, bad luck for 'em.

[slikrapid]

on the other hand there are also biased journalists (or their editors/media company owners) that intentionally distort the facts, which obviously results in animosity towards them, ofc no one can justify bloodbath as a measure of revenge

as for this incident, it seems like quite a big thing - usually its only one or a few journalists that get killed or kidnapped around the world (at some particular region), so 12 is afaik quite unusual

just checked, there are even more casualties (25.11.):

At least 57 civilians, including 26 reporters

Suspects: A group of gunmen and policemen led by the governor’s son, Andal Ampatuan Jr, who is a mayor of Datu Unsay (a municipality in Maguindanao province) and a member of the ruling party. He has not been arrested and is believed to be at the family home in the provincial capital. According to witnesses and army officers, the governor gave the go-ahead for his leading rival’s supporters to be ambushed while travelling in convoy.

The attackers reportedly raped, tortured and beheaded some of the victims. Most of the bodies have been found in mass graves.

Why did this massacre take place? To prevent Esmael Mangundadatu, a political rival of the Ampatuan clan, from running for governor in next year’s local elections. His wife, who was one of the victims, was leading a convoy that planned to register him at an electoral office.

Why were the journalists murdered? According to local reporters, about 30 journalists were accompanying the convoy in order to cover this political initiative. It is believed there were killed in order to eliminate all the witnesses of the massacre of Esmael Mangundadatu’s supporters. Lawyers and local officials were also among the victims.

http://www.rsf.org/26-journalists-were-killed-in.html

now, this may seem as just a local incident, but it may be an attempt at creating instability within the region, possibly spreading to the country

also, the usa might have some special interest in the Philippines as:

In 2007, the World Bank has declared the Philippines a "Newly industrialized country"[94] while the prestigious Goldman Sachs Group has predicted that the Philippines will be one of the Next Eleven economies which will shape world trade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines#Contemporary_Period

Philippines, Next Target of Bush's War
January 26, 2002

The long-awaited second act of President George Bush's worldwide 'war against terrorism' opened last week with the official announcement that 650 US troops would conduct 'military exercises' in the southern Philippines against the Muslim rebel movement, Abu Sayyaf.

In fact, it is learnt that the US troops have secretly been conducting operations with the Philippine military against Abu Sayyaf since last fall. Once again, the US is getting embroiled in a complex region about which very little is known.

This is the second time in just over 100 years that the US troops are in action against the Moros, or the Muslims of the southern Philippines.

http://www.twf.org/News/Y2002/0126-Philippines.html

it is quite possible that the philippines at that time lost the priority to iraq & later to afghanistan

[SealLion]

.....

I have absolutely no idea whats going on there so its hard to comment. Its tough to be a journalist in such area for sure.

Well, bad luck for 'em.

Well, since I just made a post about it along with a link, that should provide you some information as to what's going on there and be able to, if you wanted to, make a constructive comment.

A person doesn't need to be an 'expert' of anything in order to construct opinions or make comments. If we were to take on such an attitude, that is, that we HAVE to be an expert of something in order to make opinions or comments, then the entire human race is doomed.
And we are all gonna wind up in the trash.

Right where corrupt politicians, corrupt corporate execs, and corrupt police who have no regard for ethics that they were taught in Police School. We're just gonna wind up right under their thumb.
Right where they want us.

And that's not all of them either. There's also people who I feel want to rule as an oligarchy.

No one has to be an expert in anything to make comments or voice opinions after reading, and being given the opportunity to read and find out for themselves what is going on.

as far as I'm concerned, I voice my opinions here in the News Section all the time about what I feel is ethically wrong and incorrect.

If someone disagrees with my opinions and comments that I make after reading an article from a source that is reputable, I could care less.

I'm still going to voice my opinions and make comments on things that I see and read about that I strongly feel are 'f***ked -up'

This is why I make these News threads.
...for people like you to make comments on after reading the article.

YOu don't need to come here as an expert of anything even after reading the article from the link.

As for the Philippians being over run with US troops at that time. That wouldn't surprise me either.

As a matter of fact, they probably are there right now as we speak. It's just that it's secret. That's why we wouldn't hear about it until news gets leaked.

As equally as the placement of US troops in 2002 was meant to be secret, well, ....I wouldn't be surprised that it's secret right now and that they probably are there today.

So I see it this way: The US would want to keep the current government in office in the Philippians because it would continue to support those regional governments that directly, or indirectly, support the national government in the Philippians.
That same national government supports US operations in it's own country; therefore, the presence of US troops to help combat insurgency.

And thus to prevent instability which could cause potential further US military strains, if having to send more troops there that is, and regional instability and another front for this so called" War on Terror"...which isn't really a war at all.
Just a great big hoax for regional control, strong foreign influence, and \eventual world control by an oligarchy.

Now if there was a completely different government in office in the Philippians, then the possibility would exist that there would less of a foreign influence and possibly no US troops (which , IMHO, would actually be a good thing).

But as it is, things don't always turn out to be the way we'd like it to be.

[shadowww]

Ah I'm usually too lazy to read whole article so I write my opinion on just what you write in your post.

But know when I read article I'm not much smarter either.
It says they are killed and that's pretty much it. Nothing on the background of the story, so they left that for us to speculate. :)))))))

Of course US agents doing their buisness here as well, who knows whats their intentions. Nothing good again. ^___^

[SealLion]

hey my freind, ya. Ok, I guess so

I never heard of the Island there either. but I guess there's lots of places that no one has heard of before. Me included.

And as for being a journalist, I think that your probably right about being a journalist there. That's for sure

I think that it might be a troubled area if you have the sort of things happening there that are being written about on the RWB website.

I think that after reading a number of their articles myself, some of them have real difficulty reporting on events that even concern them.
And that's kind of unfortunate, yes??