Wednesday 9 December 2009

NUJ in justice for massacred journalists plea


NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has called on the Foreign Secretary David Miliband to put pressure on the Philippine government to carry out an immediate inquiry into the massacre of 59 people in Maguindanao province.
At a TUC meeting with the minister, the General Secretary handed him a letter from the NUJ and asked him to throw his weight behind the international campaign for justice.
Victims of the massacre on 23 November included 31 journalists and media workers.
Dear said: “This terrible atrocity, the worst mass killing of journalists on records, cannot go unpunished. It is not an isolated crime, there is a clear pattern of systematic violence against the media in the Philippines. The British government must do all it can to bring an end to the culture of impunity for the murders of journalists.”
See also IFJ report today and plea for legal help for families of victims.