The Ampatuan Massacre | 2009

About this episode

The episode recounts the Ampatuan Massacre, a brutal attack on a convoy in the Philippines that resulted in the deaths of 58 people, including many journalists.

On the morning of November 23, 2009, a convoy of vehicles wound through the highways of Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines. Inside were lawyers, political supporters, journalists, and the wife and family members of a man who simply wanted to run for governor. They had no reason to believe they wouldn't make it home by nightfall. But they never did. Armed men blocked the convoy on the highway, and herded the group to a nearby hilltop where several open graves had been dug up. Then, without warning, they opened fire. When it was over, 58 people were dead. Among them: 32 journalists and media workers, two lawyers, and six motorists who had simply been travelling the same road. It would become the single deadliest attack against journalists ever recorded, and one of the most brazen acts of political violence in modern history. Behind it all stood the Ampatuans a powerful clan whose private army had long operated in the shadows of state power, linked to killings, torture, abductions, and a culture of fear that had gone unchallenged for decades. This is a story about what happens when impunity becomes a way of life. About power so entrenched it believed itself…

Topics covered

• political violence
• journalist safety
• impunity
• Maguindanao
• Ampatuan clan
• true crime
• media ethics

Keywords

• Ampatuan Massacre
• Maguindanao
• political violence
• journalists
• impunity
• true crime
• media workers
• Philippines
• 2009

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ampatuan clan

Places: Maguindanao

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