A gunman shot dead a journalist in the Philippines at his family store while he was watching TV at a store.
The country has long been regarded as one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.
Jesus Malabanan, a 58-year-old provincial correspondent for the Manila Standard newspaper, died while being transported to a hospital.
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He was shot once in the head by one of two motorcycle-riding men at a family store he was tending in Calbayog city in Samar province.
Police said the suspects escaped and an investigation was underway to identify them and a motive for the attack.
Several Media watchdog groups condemned the killing including Malabanan’s colleagues in Pampanga, a province north of Manila where he was based. He had worked there for years as a news correspondent and as a stringer for Reuters.
A media protection body created by President Rodrigo Duterte also condemned the killing.
Duterte himself has long been accused by media watchdogs and human rights groups for fostering impunity among the police forces that have enforced his crackdown against illegal drugs . Such crackdowns have left thousands of mostly petty suspects dead.
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Earlier in 2009 members of a powerful political clan and their associates gunned down 58 people, including 32 media workers in southern Maguindanao province.
A Philippine court found key members of the Ampatuan family guilty of the mass killings in 2019. However many more suspects remain at large.
