{"id":13061,"date":"2026-04-20T06:55:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=13061"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:48:26","slug":"killing-of-negros-occidental-journalist-julito-calo-sparks-press-freedom-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/killing-of-negros-occidental-journalist-julito-calo-sparks-press-freedom-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing of Negros Occidental journalist Julito Calo sparks press freedom concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radio broadcaster Julito \u201cJaz\u201d Calo was fatally shot<\/a> on March 20, 2026, outside his residence in La Castellana, a municipality in Negros Occidental, Philippines.<\/p>\n

Calo, 49 years old, co-hosted<\/a> a program on DNN News FM in Himamaylan City and worked<\/a> for the local government of Negros Occidental. The attack occurred while he was tending to his garden. An unidentified gunman opened fire<\/a> and fled immediately after. Despite being rushed<\/a> to a nearby hospital, Calo was pronounced dead on arrival.<\/p>\n

With authorities still searching for suspects and a clear motive behind the attack, Calo\u2019s murder has reignited<\/a> serious concerns about the safety of journalists and the state of press freedom in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Calo is the ninth radio journalist killed<\/a> since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office on June 30, 2022.<\/p>\n

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Negros Island Region (NUJP-NIR) said<\/a> Calo\u2019s murder is not an isolated incident but part of a growing trend of attacks on media workers across the country. The organization emphasized<\/a> that too many journalists have lost their lives while on duty, stressing<\/a> that many of these cases remain unresolved, with perpetrators evading justice.<\/p>\n

The killing of journalist Percival \u201cPercy Lapid\u201d Mabasa in October 2022 further highlights<\/a> this ongoing culture of impunity in the Philippines, with former Bureau of Corrections director Gerald Bantag, his deputy, and several inmates charged<\/a> in the case. Despite a 2-million-peso reward for information leading to his arrest, Bantag remains<\/a> at large.<\/p>\n

A recent Supreme Court ruling in favor<\/a> of the news organization Rappler represented a positive step for press freedom, upholding<\/a> its Filipino-owned status and ending a protracted legal dispute viewed by advocates as an attempt to suppress critical journalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 Raffy Lerma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radio broadcaster Julito \u201cJaz\u201d Calo was fatally shot on March 20, 2026, outside his residence in La Castellana, a municipality in Negros Occidental, Philippines. Calo, 49 years old, co-hosted a program on DNN News FM in Himamaylan City and worked for the local government of Negros Occidental. The attack occurred while he was tending to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,63,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freedom-of-press","category-human-rights-defenders","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13061"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13086,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions\/13086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}