CPJ believed these pressures were “politically motivated and have created a sense of fear throughout the media industry, leading to self-censorship.”“The oppressive working environment for journalists in the Philippines is alarming,” Carroll said. “The Duterte government files case after case against Rappler while the president himself lobs sustained, often personal attacks against individual journalists. “Smaller news websites covering controversial human rights topics have suffered denial of service attacks originating from the Philippines, according to site managers,” it said. ADVERTISEMENT“Funny how our friends from CPJ managed to come out with such unfair findings on the state of Philippine media in less than 24 hours. “Clearly, they came here with one thing in mind: To paint a bleak and biased picture of the state of press freedom in the country, representing a few, privileged (read: entitled) group of journos,” he said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer April 16, 2019 07:54 UTC