15 April 2022 | CPJ
Journalist Jhannah Villegas shot in southern Philippines
Shooting
On April 15, 2022, unidentified attackers shot and killed Jhannah Villegas at her home in the town of Anggal Midtimbang, in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
News reports said she had been threatened by people she criticized in her reporting, but did not specify who made those threats.
Villegas’ husband, Saudi Akmad, was quoted saying that Villegas had received an anonymous death threat on the night before her killing, but did not elaborate on the substance of the threat.
Provincial police spokesperson Captain Fayed Cana said that Villegas’ killing “could be related to her work” and that she may have made enemies through her reporting for the community newspaper Sagad and Bugso and as a radio reporter, according to those sources.
Jonathan De Santos, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, told CPJ by email that Villegas’ killing “could be work-related.”
In addition to reporting for Sagad and Bugso, Villegas worked as a block-time broadcaster for Radyo Ukay in the city of Kidapawan and Energy FM 106.7 in Manila, those reports said.
News reports referred to her reporting on local politics and officials as “hard-hitting.” She also headed Mindanao Balita, an independent online news blog covering local political events across the region for which she reported on the anti-government insurgency in Maguindanao including covering the conflict, its consequences for people in the region, and reporting from within areas controlled by insurgents.
Read the original article here: https://cpj.org/data/people/jhannah-villegas/
