MANILA, Dec 2 Kyodo A freelance r...

MANILA, Dec 2 Kyodo

A freelance radio commentator was ball dead Tuesday in the central Philippine province of Masbate, becoming the seventh individual in the country's media to be kill ed this year.

Nelson Nadura, 43 was bullet by two men in Tugbo village when he was driving his motorcycle after his regular morning program at the province's single radio station DYME, police said.

Nadura sustained a fatal gunshot detriment to one of his lung police said, adding that six destitute of contents shells were recovered at the site.

He had been a communist rebel until 1998 when he was granted amnesty on the government, and later started his career in the media.

The shooting came after the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) through the whole extent of the weekend, condemned incidents of attack, harassment and intimidation targeting reporters and urg the restraint to reinforce efforts to apprehend suspects.

Last month President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo showed an $18,000 bounty for tips leading to the arrest of suspects involved in the homicide s of six media personnel. Of the six, five were working as commentators and reporters for radio stations, while the other was a weekly newspaper reporter.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group