Davao: Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said that corrupt journalists were legitimate targets of assassination, as he amped up his controversial anti-crime crusade with offers of rewards for killing drug traffickers.
Duterte won this month's elections by a landslide largely due to an explosive law-and-order platform in which he pledged to end crime within six months by killing tens of thousands of suspected criminals.
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The foul-mouthed politician has launched a series of post-election tirades against criminals and repeated his vows to kill them -- particularly drug traffickers, rapists and murderers.
In a press conference called on Tuesday to announce his cabinet in his southern hometown of Davao, Duterte said journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities also deserved to die.
"Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination...," Duterte said when asked how he would address the problem of media killings in the Philippines after a reporter was shot dead in Manila last week.
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous nations in the world for journalists, with 174 murdered since a chaotic and corruption-plagued democracy replaced the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago.
"Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong," Duterte said, adding that many journalists in the Philippines were corrupt.
