[7] Based on the data by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), 199[a] media workers have been killed since 1986; all deaths included were in relation to their job.
The highest number was under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with 103, including 32 of those murdered in Maguindanao in what was called the world's worst single attack on journalists,[4][6][13][14] which made the year 2009 the deadliest for them.
Data from the CPJ shows 159 killed since 1992; UNESCO reported 117 since 1996, with the majority of them having the state's publicized responses to Director General's request for information on judicial follow-up.
Incidents usually occurred in the provinces,[13] wherein victims working there as journalists exposed wrongdoings in their locality[28] and were critical about these issues.
[18] For instance, a CPJ's database shows that among those journalists killed in 1992–July 2021, it was found that 94% were based in the provinces; a third of them had received prior threats.
[30][31] The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has recorded, by April 2015, ten of those "killed in the line of duty since 1986" are women, four of them in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre case.
[33][c] Meanwhile, CMFR recorded that, by 2011, 54% of the monitored cases were considered "cold or dead" where police have been unable to identify and arrest any suspect.
[36][37][35][38] The CPJ shows in its database that assailants in 97% of the recorded killings (1992–July 2021) have not yet been punished; local government officials were suspected as the masterminds in more than half of the cases.
[21][20][b] In 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created Task Force Usig in response to the rising number of murders of journalists and activists.
Additionally, it was deemed ineffective as it operated from Camp Crame and relied on local police investigators vulnerable to political pressure.
[35] The term has various definitions: In the case of 32 journalists slain in 2009 in Maguindanao, they are said killed in the line of duty, thus recorded by both CMFR and NUJP.
Moreover, media activists had been concerned with the task force's count beginning from 2001 as they recorded only a few percent of those in the tally of CMFR and NUJP.
[3] TF Usig documented five of these cases; classified that of Perez, Castillo and Linao as work-related, while that of Petalvero and Abbas otherwise.
The Ampatuans waylaid the group, as well as passers-by and diverted them to a hill wherein they shot the victims dead, with their bodies and some of the vehicles later buried in the pits by clan members.
On December 19, 2019, in a verdict by Quezon City RTC, 28 principal respondents, including eight Ampatuan clan members especially the brothers, were convicted for 57 counts of murder, including 31 media workers, and were sentenced with reclusión perpetua without parole; 15 were sentenced to lower prison terms for being accessories to the crime.
[92] Another four, died on duty at radio stations as super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) hit Tacloban, were also included by INSI[5] and IFJ, which categorized them as accidental deaths.
[5] Eight media practitioners were among those who died as Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) hit Tacloban on November 8; four of them in the line of duty.