Palace: Foreign journos' findings on press freedom baseless, 'hasty generalization'

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang slammed the Community to Protect Journalists report that found “increasing levels of intimidation” on Philippine press citing the slew of cases against Rappler as baseless and hasty.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo stressed that Maria Ressa or Rappler “does not represent the entire media in the Philippines.”

“There are local journalists who are similarly critical, even outrageously hostile and biased of the policies of the Administration, but they continue to enjoy the practice of their profession free from charges or suits by reason of their not violating any law outside of the practice of their profession,” Panelo added.

READ: Foreign journos' mission finds 'increasing levels of intimidation' vs local press

New York-based CPJ Tuesday raised that they believe the series of legal cases against Rappler, one of the local news outfits critical of the administration and that has been at the bitter end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades, is “likely to be politically motivated.”

The committee also expressed that the legal suits against the online news outfit may have created a climate of fear among local journalists.

Panelo, also the presidential chief legal counsel, stressed that Ressa is facing criminal charges “which the investigating prosecutor and the courts trying her found probable cause that she could have probably committed the same.”

State prosecutors have filed a total of 11 active cases against Ressa and Rappler before local courts. They face charges that include a violation of the anti-dummy law, tax evasion and cyberlibel.

RELATED: A look at the cyber libel charge vs Rappler, Maria Ressa

Panelo also said that under the Duterte administration, the Philippines “was delisted as one of the deadliest countries for media,” according to the 2018 annual report of Reporters Without Borders.

The Philippines, however, slipped to 133rd from 127th out of the 180 countries on 2018 World Press Freedom Index of the media watchdog.

READ: Philippines down 6 notches on World Press Freedom Index

The Philippines also ranks fifth on CPJ’s Impunity Index, “which measures the extent to which the killers of journalists escape punishment.”

Panelo also pointed out that Duterte created the presidential task force on media security, “which made significant strides in providing a safe working environment for media workers in the country.”

The committee said that while they are pleased that a task force has been created for media security, they lamented that it seemed that it “does not think” of cyberattacks on smaller media organizations’ websites as an issue.

The committee said that they found it alarming, and hoped that the task force would reconsider. — Kristine Joy Patag