A prominent local editor, newspaper owner and political organiser was gunned down today on the resort island of Phuket by unknown assailants on a motorbike in what appears to have been a targeted killing.

According to local media, Wisut Tangwitthayaporn, owner of the Inside Phuket newspaper and editor of Phuket E-news, was driving with his wife on a major Phuket street during rush hour when their vehicle was intercepted by the motorbike. The gunman, riding pillion, opened fire, striking Wisut twice in the chest and once in the shoulder. The journalist was rushed to Vachira Phuket Hospital, where he later died of his wounds. His wife, Jiraporn Hosakul, was unharmed.

According to various news outlets, Wisut was also a local leader of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorships, known as the ‘red shirts.’ The group, whose members are drawn largely from Thailand’s rural areas, was formed in 2006 to protest the military coup that deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

While no definitive motive has been announced, the Phuket Gazette reported late Thursday that police suspect Inside Phuket’s reporting on the issuance of illegal land titles on the island may have contributed to the editor’s killing.

The Phuket Gazette pointed, as an example of Wisut’s controversial work, to the latter’s recent investigation of the planned sale of Freedom Beach, a remote stretch that lies within the boundary of a forest reserve but, according to Wisut, had fallen into corrupt ownership.

Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha confirmed that Wisut had reported on illegal land deeds in Phuket, which the governor said was “a continually recurring problem”, according to media reports. Tri added that he was working with police and keeping a “close eye on the case”.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “We offer our sincere condolences to the family and colleagues of Wisut Tangwitthayaporn. Though all the facts in this case are not yet known, we are disturbed by the suggestion that he may have been killed for his work as a journalist. We urge the authorities to launch an immediate investigation, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

According to IPI’s Death Watch, Wisut is the fifth journalist to have been killed so far this year.