When former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte left office earlier this year, it marked a change in the government’s antagonistic relationship with the media. But new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is the son of a former dictator who led a crackdown on the media decades ago. So when radio commentator Percy Lapid was shot dead near Manila on October 3, it left journalists wondering what this government’s response might show about how safe they will be in this next chapter.

In this episode: 

• Roy Mabasa (@roymabasa), journalist and brother of Percy Lapid
• Jonathan de Santos (@desamting), chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
• Carlos Conde (@condeHRW), senior Philippines researcher, Human Rights Watch

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Chloe K. Li and our host, Halla Mohieddeen. It was fact-checked by Ruby Zaman.

Our production team includes Chloe K. Li, Alexandra Locke, Ashish Malhotra, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, and Ruby Zaman. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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