Several Filipino journalists in southern Philippines, including a photographer for Paris-based Agence France Presse, simultaneously received death threats on Monday night, nearly a year after the worst massacre in the country's history.
Mark Navales, a stringer photographer for AFP, confirmed through phone interview that he was among those who received the threat, Xinhua reported.
He said an unknown man sent a message to his mobile phone last night, advising him to watch out for the media death squad.
"This is alarming. Whatever circumstances, we don't want last year's mass killings will happen again," Navales said.
Navales said he informed his colleague, Ali Macabalang, head of the Bureau of Public Information of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who also received the same message.
"We have no idea who's behind it. We already reported this matter to authorities," Navales said.
Other journalists who received the death threats were from radio and local newspapers.
Recently, media watchdog Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said some 90 journalists have been killed doing their job in 33 countries so far this year, a 25-percent increase on the same period of 2009.
On Nov. 23 last year, at least 57 people, 30 of them journalists, were slaughtered by gunmen working for an influential politician in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao.
Among those killed in the massacre were wife of Maguindanao Governor Ismael Mangudadatu, his sisters, supporters and at least 30 journalists. The group was waylaid on their way to the local Commission on Election office to file Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for governor.
Former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., his son, former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., his other son, Zaldy Ampatuan, the former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have been jailed while being tried for the massacre.