A New York-based non-profit organization that promotes press freedom globally said today that Filipino journalists are now facing greater intimidation from powerful forces.
At a press conference today, members of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) who arrived in the Philippines for a fact-finding mission said that they are “extremely concerned” by the threats faced by Filipino journalists, GMA News reported.
The group was particularly worried about the case of news website Rappler, whose officers including executive editor Maria Ressa are facing several charges including tax evasion and cyber libel. Ressa says that the cases were politically motivated as President Rodrigo Duterte is openly hostile towards Rappler for its coverage of his government.
The CPJ agrees with Ressa and said in a statement that the charges faced by Rappler would lead to self-censorship among other members of the media.
CPJ board chairperson Kathleen Carroll told Rappler today: “The Duterte government files case after case against Rappler while the President himself lobs sustained, often personal attacks against individual journalists. Online harassment of journalists is highly organized and vicious.”
Another example they gave was the case of media conglomerate ABS-CBN. President Duterte has repeatedly threatened the company that he would not renew their license to broadcast once it expires in 2020.
The CPJ also said that the government harasses other Filipino journalists by accusing them of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Meanwhile, alternative local news websites which cover human rights issues have been targeted by numerous cyber attacks.
In March, four local news websites filed a case against technology companies IP Converge and Suniway Group of Companies for allegedly mounting crippling cyber attacks against them, reported Bulatlat.
However, Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco dismissed the CPJ’s conclusions. In a Facebook post, he wrote: “Funny how our friends from CPJ managed to come out with such an unfair findings (sic) on the state of PH media in less than 24 hours. Astonishing!”
Egco alleged that the CPJ group met them and arrived in a van marked with the ABS-CBN logo. During their meeting, Egco said that his group responded to their queries, but none of their answers made it to the CPJ’s statement.
“I thought these guys are good examples of responsibility. We cannot just stand idly by and watch them mock us, our efforts, our sovereignty, and our intelligence as independed-minded (sic), self-respecting Filipino journalists,” he added.
Duterte formed the PTFoMS in 2016 to protect members of the press from harassment.
However, the group has remained mum about the online harassment faced by journalists, The Philippine Star reported. The newspaper cited the case involving freelance journalist Gretchen Malalad and Al Jazeera correspondent Jamela Alindogan, both of whom were threatened online with rape by supporters of the president.
