"That sends chills down our spine."
In a genuinely democratic society, citizens can express their sentiment about the government and its leaders, without fear of backlash or reprisal.
After the previous weeks’ heated conversations about a bill purporting to fight terrorism, and prior to that, the closure of a popular broadcast network upon the expiration of its congressional franchise, now comes another development that makes us ask whether media organizations in the Philippines can ever aspire to be truly independent.
A Manila court on Monday convicted the executive editor and a former researcher of an online publication of cyber libel. The case stemmed from a years-old story about a businessman whom the story accused of engaging in criminal activities. The businessman filed a case against the two.
It would have been an ordinary legal issue, decided on pure merit of whether the story in substance and form violated the law against libel in cyberspace. However, the online publication has been critical of the Duterte administration’s conduct of its war on illegal drugs, telling vivid stories about how the police targeted the poor. The Palace banned its reporter from covering presidential events and the President himself has uttered uncharitable words against its journalists.
Administration officials like to dissociate themselves from these perceived attacks on press freedom. They claim that our democracy continues to be vibrant—see, anybody can still say what he or she wants to say. Of course people still speak out, but they do so despite the risks of being maligned by hacks and trolls at best, and branded as terrorists or even sued for one reason or another.
The people need more acts, not words, of assurance from the government to dispel the notion that press freedom—which we fought for hard and dearly—is under attack again. What our leaders are saying and what we see them doing are simply incongruous. That sends chills down our spine.