Kalinga governor suspended for hitting reporter

MANILA, Philippines – A Philippine governor who whacked a broadcaster on the head with a microphone has been suspended for a month.

President Benigno Aquino III ordered Governor Jocel Baac of northern Kalinga province suspended without pay a year after a video showed him bursting into DZRK radio studio and attacking announcer Jerome Tabanganay.

Tabanganay said Baac apparently was irked by the station’s commentaries on illegal gambling and logging in the upland province.

Aquino warned in his order handed down over the weekend that similar action will be dealt with more severely.

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. In 2009, at least 31 media workers were among 57 people massacred allegedly by members of a powerful clan in the country’s south.