UN experts urge Duterte: Don't incite violence

ABS-CBN News
Posted at Jun 06 2016 08:09 PM | Updated as of Jun 06 2016 09:47 PM

MANILA - Two independent experts of the United Nations (UN) urged President-elect
Rodrigo Duterte to stop inciting deadly violence following his recent statements on
media killings.
In a statement, Cristof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, and
David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom opinion and expression, reacted to
Duterte's statement that some journalists are killed for being corrupt.

""A message of this nature amounts to incitement to violence and killing, in a nation
already ranked as the second-deadliest country for journalists," Heyns said. "These
comments are irresponsible in the extreme, and unbecoming of any leader, let
alone someone who is to assume the position of the leader of a country that calls
itself democratic."
Kaye, on the other hand, said: "Justifying the killing of journalists on the basis of
how they conduct their professional activities can be understood as a permissive
signal to potential killers that the murder of journalists is acceptable in certain
circumstances and would not be punished."
"This position is even more disturbing when one considers that Philippines is still
struggling to ensure accountability to notorious cases of violence against journalists,
such as the Maguindanao massacre," he added.