Safety Zone – 2nd Qtr 2007
Newsletter of the International News Safety Institute
Issue 5, 2nd Quarter 2007, Southeast Asia

J O U R N A L I S T S    A N D    M E D I A    S T A F F    K I L L E D
PHILIPPINES
18-04-07
Provincial broadcaster killed
Carmelo “Mark” Palacios, 41, a reporter for the government-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan was found dead in Sta. Rosa town, Nueva Ecija (about 200 km. north of Manila) on 18 April at around 6 a.m. (local time). Reports said the victim must have irked some rogue policemen and politicians because of his reports. Palacios had done a series of reports on the alleged misuse of a congressman’s pork barrel. He had also helped solve several local crimes by providing leads to the police.

25-06-07
Broadcaster slain in ambush
Vincent Sumalpong, 25, production supervisor of Radyo ng Bayan (People’s Radio) was shot dead in Bongao town, Tawi-Tawi on 25 June at about 5:25 a.m. Policemen believe that his death was work-related saying the victim might have irritated some people while he was investigating the death of a guest relations officer in their area.

M E D I A    S A F E T Y
BURMA
23-05-07
Police release two journalists working for Japanese TV
Aung Shwe Oo and Daw Sint Sint Aung, who work for Nippon News Network’s (NNN) Bangkok bureau, were released after two days in detention. The Burmese journalists were arrested on 21 May near the port in Thilawar, where several journalists working for foreign news media had gone to verify whether a North Korean cargo vessel had arrived in the port.

PHILIPPINES
19-04-07
Newspaper correspondent attacked
Delfin Mallari Jr., a veteran Southern Luzon correspondent of the Manila-based broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), was shot on 19 April in Lucena City, Quezon, a province east of Manila. Mallari, together with Ang Dyaryo Natin (Our Newspaper) publisher Johnny Glorioso, were on their way to DWKI station, for their 8 a.m. program “JS Files” when two men on board a motorcycle fired at them. The 53-year-old Mallari was hit in the left side of his back—the bullet missing his spine by a few centimeters—while Glorioso was not hurt.

29-05-07
ABS-CBN reporters get death threats
Cable news channel ANC anchor Ricky Carandang and DZMM Radyo Patrol reporter Noel Alamar received death threats in connection with their 27 May exclusive stories on the special elections in Lanao del Sur, a province in Mindanao. The two had reported about a group of special election officers who took custody of blank election returns from the Lanao del Sur provincial treasurer’s office in Marawi City.

27-06-07
Three radio station employees get death threats
Radyo ng Bayan (People’s Radio) reporter Salih Jamasali, security personnel Amil Bahal Baiting and administrative officer Gulam Hussin Sappayani claimed to have received death threats from an anonymous group―two days after their production supervisor Vincent Sumalpong was killed.

R E G I O N A L    S E C U R I T Y
INDONESIA
Terror suspects jailed
The Semarang District Court on 18 June sentenced two terror suspects for sending a laptop to jailed Bali bomber Imam Samudra. Agung Setiadi, alias Salaful Jihad, was found guilty of sending the computer by courier to Samudra in May 2005 and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. Prison warden Beni Irawan, was sentenced to five years in jail for physically handing the laptop to Samudra at the penitentiary. Both men’s sentences were six years lighter than prosecutors demanded.

Imam and fellow Bali bombers Amrozi and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, are on death row for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings which left 202 people dead. All three were moved to a high security island jail off the southern coast of Central Java in October 2005. Both the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings have been blamed on the Jamaah Islamiyah Islamic extremist network.

PHILIPPINES
Three buses bombed in Mindanao
At least three buses were bombed in different areas in the southern island of Mindanao in June. In Matalam, North Cotabato, 10 people were wounded in an explosion inside a People’s Transit Corporation bus (body number 7017) on 08 June. The improvised explosive device allegedly placed by an unknown suspect at the left side of the upper carrier of the bus was believed to have been triggered by a mobile phone. All victims were bystanders at the terminal and were not among the 30 passengers of the bus.

On 15 June, another passenger bus (Weena bus with body number 1104) exploded, this time in Bansalan in Davao del Sur. At least 10 passengers were killed and five others injured. The bus had just left the Bansalan terminal for Davao City around 6 p.m. when a crude bomb left by unknown men inside the bus went off. Fifteen minutes later, another homemade bomb also exploded at the Weena Bus terminal in Cotabato City some but no one was reported injured.

THAILAND
Southern unrest continues
Series of bombings occurred in the troubled South in the past quarter. In Yala, at least 13 people were injured in bombings allegedly staged by suspected insurgents on 04 April. Eight days later, a bomb exploded in a busy market, wounding 11 people. Two soldiers and a police officer were among the injured. A second bomb went off in the bathroom of Yala’s main bus terminal, but there were no injuries.

On 27 May, seven coordinated bomb explosions hit businesses in Hat Yai, the main tourist hub in the southern region, wounding at least 11 people. The blasts, which began at 9:00 p.m., hit hotels, restaurants and department stores popular with Malaysian and Singaporean tourists. The next day, a powerful bomb exploded in a busy market in Songkhla’s Saba Yoi district. Four people and 26 others were injured.

Meanwhile, insurgents claimed a total of 21 lives―both soldiers and civilians―in a single day on 31 May. Southern Army spokesman Acra Tiproch said it was “the biggest single attack yet”.

D I S E A S E S    &    D I S A S T E R S
Southeast Asian countries once again faced problems on dengue fever at the onset of the rainy season.

BURMA
As of 21 May, at least 17 children have died of dengue in Kyaung-ywa village public hospital in Ye Township said. Dengue has been causing at least one or two deaths ever day in Mudon Township.

In Rangoon, at least three to four people are being admitted to hospitals daily. Hardest hit were Insein, Ahlone, Kyi Myin Dine and Shwe Pyi Thar townships, said Dr. Daw Tin Aye Myint, head of Insein Township general hospital. Hospital officials declined to say the exact number of dengue patients but statistics reported by a local newspaper, suggest an average of over 10,000 children suffer from dengue every year with 300 to 400 deaths.

INDONESIA
In Central Java, three people have died in a dengue fever outbreak in Cilacap regency. More than 200 people were affected by the disease over the last five months.

Meanwhile, environmental health expert Budi Haryanto said Jakarta City’s dengue control measures had not tackled the root cause of the problem. He said the fumigation campaign lacked proper technique, used improper dosages of insecticide, and was managed by unprofessional fumigation officers.

The city health agency data shows South Jakarta with the largest dengue outbreak, followed closely by East, West and North Jakarta.

PHILIPPINES
On 19 June,the Department of Health (DOH) has ordered hospitals to reactivate “Dengue Express Lanes” due to a 6.8 percent upsurge in the number of dengue cases in the country. At least 73 people have already died of dengue in the past five months. Dr. Eric Tayag, director of the DOH-National Epidemiology Center, said there have been 7,361 reported dengue cases from 1 January to 2 June 2007, compared to just 6,695 cases during the same period last year.

Tayag said the situation is more serious this year because dengue fever has become “hyper-endemic” in the country. This means it’s already too late for efforts to reduce the number of cases to its previous level because all four strains of the dengue causing virus are active and are being spread by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti at the same time; unlike last year, when only one strain of the virus was being spread. With four strains of the dengue virus as potential agents of infection, Tayag said that a person can become ill with dengue as many as four times.

THAILAND
Nationally, 9,245 cases have been detected and 10 people have died since January—a 17 percent increase in infections from the same period last year when nine people died. Dozens of new cases are detected daily. Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot said hospitals are offering free testing.

Central provinces account for 40 per cent of infections followed by the South, with 25 percent. In Bangkok, 1,612 cases and one death have been recorded. Pom Prab district is the worst with 60 infections for every 100,000 people.

I N S I    N E W S
Only half way through year and journalist death toll hits 100
The worldwide journalist death toll has risen sharply this year with 100 lives lost within six months, threatening even the record level reached in 2006.

Figures compiled by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) showed 83 journalists and 17 other media professionals have died covering news stories between 1 January and 26 June, compared with 68 at the same time last year. INSI recorded a total of 168 casualties in 2006, the worst year ever.

The 100 mark was reached in Iraq―the worst killing ground for the news media in modern times―with the 26 June assassination of Hamed Sarha, 57, shot by unidentified gunmen on his way home.

“This is a shocking development. We have never known such a high death toll half way through a year, and we fear for what might be to come” said INSI Director Rodney Pinder.

According to INSI’s records 72 of the casualties worldwide over the past six months were evidently murdered. But most of the dead were little known outside their own countries where they were targeted for trying to do their daily jobs.

After Iraq, the countries where most journalists were murdered in the first half of this year were Afghanistan (5), Haiti and Philippines, each with four dead, Somalia, Palestine and India (3) and Sri Lanka, Mexico and Brazil (2).

As a news safety organization, INSI records all manner of deaths―from murder to accident―of all members of the news gathering and production business, whether staff or freelance, provided they appear to have died as a result of their work.

P O S T C A R D    F R O M    B A L I
During the “Southeast Asia Media and Disaster Risk Management: A Regional News Safety Conference and Training for Frontline Journalists” in Bali Indonesia, December 4-8, 2006, Indonesian Metro TV reporter and newsreader Meutya Hafid narrated her ordeal three years ago in Iraq where she was abducted and held for seven days by militants.

Her story:

I learned a very important lesson in Iraq: the situation can change suddenly and swiftly. What seemed mundane and ordinary like stopping for gas can quickly become a dangerous event. My cameraman and I were abducted when we stopped at a gas station. We became targets of opportunity.

Many things went through my mind especially when we were blindfolded. I was afraid but I remained calm. Maybe it also helped that I was Muslim and that perhaps I could reason with my captors.

We were held in a cave about three meters square but we were mostly left alone. I identified myself as an Indonesian journalist and asked if I can interview the leader. Everyday I requested for an interview and each time I was politely told that maybe it can be scheduled the following day.

I talked to them about my work and my family. Soon they were also telling me about theirs. I think to my abductors I was a less a journalist and more of a person with dreams and hopes just like them.

Unknown to us at the time, our station, Metro TV, was frantically calling all media and diplomatic contacts. We’ve never experienced something like this before and the editors and management were terribly worried about us they practically called everybody up in Indonesia, the US, Britain and Iraq.

Escaping never entered my mind. We were in the middle of the desert and even if I was able to get out of the cave I will easily stand out as a stranger.

We were never threatened but I felt they wanted to make sure we were really who we said we were. They released us without fanfare and all the camera equipment and personal belongings the gunmen earlier seized were returned to us intact.

When they asked me if would want to go back to Iraq to do another story, I looked into their faces and said no even if deep inside me my journalist’s gut was telling me, “Yes, why not…if only for a big story.”

K E Y    Q U O T E S
“After the Melo Commission report and the UN Human Rights Council’s investigations, with their damning conclusions for the Philippine government, those responsible for these attacks must be identified and punished. If they turn out to be members of the security forces, we urge the government to take additional measures to put a stop to this kind of abuse.” RSF, 20 April

“Vicente Sumalpong’s name must not be allowed to join the long list of Philippine journalists whose deaths have gone unsolved. The government must move quickly to find and prosecute those who feel they can kill journalists with impunity.” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, 25 June

“The issue here is not just the safety and lives of journalists. A greater issue is whether this government is truly committed to democracy and freedom.” National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, 25 June