EFF: Duterte Administration Moves to Kill Free Speech in the Philippines
Duterte Administration Moves to Kill Free Speech in the Philippines In a country where press freedom is already under grave threat, the revocation of an independent publication’s license to operate and a proposed amendment to the Bill of Rights are pushing journalists further into the margins. While the Constitution of the Philippines guarantees press freedom and the country’s media landscape is quite diverse, journalists nevertheless face an array of threats . Libel threats and advertising boycotts are common, and the country ranks fifth in the world in terms of impunity for killing journalists. And since the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, press freedom in the Philippines has taken a further blow . Like President Trump, Duterte enjoys going after individual media outlets that criticize his policies, creating an increasingly chilled atmosphere for the country’s independent journalists and free speech. In an unprecedented move, the Duterte administration’s Se...