Journalists, media workers and other concerned groups need to push for press freedom to be an election issue. The Philippine National Police denies the existence of a culture of impunity that violates the rights of journalists and other sectors of society. They claimed that ABS–CBN’s shutdown and Rappler’s legal woes are isolated cases that do not affect other news media organisations in the country.Īs certain government officials continue to engage in red-tagging journalists and news media organisations, government agencies argue that their officials are merely expressing their personal opinions and not official policy. As might be expected, Duterte and his supporters have denied media repression. It is uncertain to what extent the state of press freedom will be raised as an election issue.Ĭandidates are expected to mouth the usual rhetoric about preserving democracy, including the importance of a vibrant press. National and local elections in the Philippines will be held in May 2022. The prevailing climate of media repression sends a chilling message to journalists and media workers in the country that they should toe the administration line. While the distributed denial-of-service attacks - which overwhelm servers with too many data requests to shut it down - have been happening since 2018, the most recent attack on two news media organisations was carried out by the Philippine Army.Īt least 190 journalists have been killed since 1986, 21 of them under the Duterte administration. There have also been cyberattacks launched at the websites of news media organisations in an attempt to prevent them from doing their work. Under the Duterte administration, news media organisations and journalists have been red-tagged or accused of being communist sympathisers, and at least two journalists have been arrested and detained. In a House of Representatives vote in July 2020, the broadcast network was shut down. Like the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who ordered broadcast network ABS–CBN’s closure in 1972, Duterte said in 2019 that ABS–CBN would be ‘out’ when its franchise expired in 2020. In June 2020, Ressa and former Rappler journalist Reynaldo Santos, Jr. Duterte criticised Rappler for being peddler of ‘fake news’ and its license was revoked in 2018 - ironic given Ressa’s investigative work exposing disinformation on social media. The cases filed against leading online media organisation Rappler and its CEO Maria Ressa made global headlines. Press freedom and human rights defenders continue to denounce the prevailing culture of impunity that the government claims ended under the administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The Philippine press is commonly perceived to be among the freest in Asia, but it remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to practice journalism. While the media situations in both countries deserve scrutiny, the Philippines is a peculiarly interesting case. The Philippines and Russia also ranked 7th and 10th, respectively, in the Committee to Protect Journalists 2021 Global Impunity Index. The Philippines is ranked 130th and Russia 152nd in the Reporters Without Borders 2021 World Press Freedom Index. Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificĪuthor: Danilo Araña Arao, University of the Philippines Dilimanīy awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov on 8 October 2021, the Norwegian Nobel Committee put the spotlight on the state of press freedom in the Philippines and Russia - and rightly so.
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