Hit man guns down photojournalist

A hit man gunned down photojournalist Allan Dizon in the central city of Cebu on 27 November, bringing to 12 the number of journalists murdered in the country since the start of the year. "It is distressing to learn that yet again a journalist has been killed in the Philippines, the third this month," said Reporters Without Borders. "These serial killings destroy any credibility government action may have had, even though it has taken steps to try to end this violence". After Iraq, the Philippines was the world's most dangerous country for journalists, the worldwide press freedom organisation added. Dizon, aged around 30, was shot twice close to the SM City commercial mall and died two hours later in the city hospital, police sources said. His killer, his face partly hidden by a helmet, fired on Dizon at point black range, shooting him again in the back as he tried to run away. The gunman escaped the scene with the help of an accomplice who was waiting for him with a motorbike. Police set up a Task Force to investigate the murder, for which no-one has admitted responsibility. The journalist's colleagues said he had been very jittery and apparently preoccupied by financial worries. Dizon, who had been employed for less than a year on the daily The Freeman and the tabloid Banat News, had recently written a report about drug-trafficking in a Cebu neighborhood, editor of the two papers told the daily Inquirer. But the journalist was not believed to have received any warnings. His wife, Amelina Dizon, also confirmed that as far as she knew her husband had not been threatened.