MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines remained in the seventh spot of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ global rankings of the worst countries for unsolved killings of media workers.
The Philippines maintained its ranking in the CPJ’s Global Impunity Index as the New York-based press freedom organization monitored 13 unsolved murders of journalists in the country between Sept. 1, 2011 and Aug. 31, 2021.
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The country’s ranking improved last year largely due to a technicality as the November 2009 Ampatuan, Maguindanao massacre — where 58 people were murdered including 32 media workers — no longer fell into the 10-year time frame for calculating the index.
This resulted in the Philippines becoming the “biggest mover” in last year’s index, where it slid down two places from the fifth spot.
Somalia topped the index this year, with 25 unsolved murders of journalists, followed by Syria (21), Iraq (18), South Sudan (5), Afghanistan (17) and Mexico (27). Also in the list are Brazil (14), Pakistan (12), Russia (6), Bangladesh (6) and India (20).
The CPJ calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. — Xave Gregorio