Story by J.S.
At the Break Free campaign marking the 13th year since the Ampatuan Massacre, journalists vowed to “keep fighting” amid persisting attacks against the Filipino press leading up to and in the wake of the 2022 elections.
Break Free is an annual month-long protest spearheaded by the Union of Journalists of the Philippines – UP Diliman to commemorate the Ampatuan Massacre, the deadliest attack against members of the media in history.
On Nov. 23, media practitioners, student journalists and groups advocating for press freedom protested outside the Quezon Hall in UP Diliman to mark the anniversary of the massacre itself.
“Alam natin na hindi pa tapos ang laban sa dilim… Ipagpapatuloy natin ang laban hangga’t namamayagpag ang impunity at kasinungalingan,” said Marjohara Tucay, a reporter at the alternative media outlet AlterMidya.
Len Olea added, “Hindi dapat maging dangerous ang practice ng journalism sa isang demokratikong bansa.”
Olea is the managing editor of the alternative news website Bulatlat. Last October, she was given the Award of Distinction by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, after having been red-tagged two weeks prior.
At the forum on Nov. 26 capping the commemoration, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Vice Chairperson Kath Cortez said that hostilities against the media worsened during the 2022 national elections.
NUJP reported several instances of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, in which perpetrators flood a targeted website with more internet traffic than it usually handles, during the campaign season.
The websites of publisher Pinoy Media Center, media giant ABS-CBN and independent media organization VERA Files were hit by a DDoS attack in late 2021.
GMA News also faced a DDoS attack in January 2022, following the Jessica Soho Presidential Interviews. The website of CNN Philippines reported a similar attack during its live presidential debate.
Online news outlet Rappler fell victim to DDoS attacks twice in December 2021 and another in January 2022.
“Mas dumadami nang dumadami yung mga pag-atake [laban sa midya] noong nakaraang eleksyon because sobrang matingkad yung organized trolling or yung mismong physical attack na ginagawa sa mga media kapag nagco-cover ng mga campaign sortie,” Cortez added.
Cortez cited how Rappler reporters Sherwin De Vera and Edwin Mangoba were barred from covering the public caravan of then-candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in February 2022.
She also pointed to the killing of Newsline Philippines reporter Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy in November 2021, as the country ranked seventh on the Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists the previous October.
Cortez said, “Hindi dapat magkanya-kanya despite the differences in news outfits. ‘Yung sinasabing mayroong competition sa ratings? At the end of the day, we learned na kailangan natin ng isang community to fight back.”
She added, “We see to it na nararamdaman din ng mga politiko yung presence ng media community na may iisang tinig.”
This article is originally a submission for a Journalism 121 (The Newsroom) class at the University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Mass Communication, Department of Journalism.
It is also part of Tinig ng Plaridel’s partnership with the Union of Journalists of the Philippines – UP Diliman for Break Free.
