Duterte’s wish: ‘Kill journalism in this country’
nothing coming their way, they talk more. They destroy people, journalists, he says, are nothing lumps most Filipino journalists
How to eradicate this scourge? What is Duterte’s answer? What does he wish for? “Kill journal
The strategy became evident almost from the moment Duterte took office. Vera Files, the online fact-checking news website headed by the indefatigable Ellen Tordesillas, has compiled an instructive timeline of the government’s attacks against its press critics. It is a chronological list of verbal threats and intimidation, and breezy false accusations.
on the timeline reads, journalists are told by Duterte how they could not invoke the right to freedom from the Constitution should they malign a person’s reputa Duterte intended to crack down on defamation and strengthen Philippines’ libel laws. Wrong. He rages at journalists who dig up stories that make him and members of his family look bad. There will be a day of reckoning for those bitches, he vows. And so, it began.
On February 20, 2017, Martin Andanar, the head of presidential communications, accused journal covering the Senate hearing on the Davao Death Squads. In the ensuing months, news agencies most critical of the President’s policies, particularly his bloody campaign against drugs, were under attack. On April 27, 2017, Duterte threat would block the renewal of their license, he said, urging them later to promote his federalism agenda. In July, during his state of the na and the online news agency Rappler of being American-owned, in violation of laws restricting foreign ownership of mass media. This bullying carried on throughout the year. In August, he leaned hard against the
(PDI) newspaper, via ad boycotts and economic harass communications undersecretary put forward the preposterous claim that journalists invented
The blustering rages and threats were not just hot, empty air. They carried all the weight and force of 2017, through Machiavellian maneuverings, Ramon Ang, the tycoon said to be a close ally to Duterte, bought out the PDI from its own January 15, 2018, the Securities Rappler’s license to operate.
Worse still, the following day, a hastily formed House sub-committee convening on constitutional amendments, agitated to limit the constitutional protection of free speech in Article III, Section 4 of the Constitution. The proposal is to insert the phrase “responsible safeguards freedom of speech and the right of people to assemble and petition the government. It is a pernicious, qualifying phrase that strangles the breadth and scope of a fundamental freedom. - rightly protested.
Meanwhile, lying, falsehoods, the flow of fake news, the le and name-calling, have intensi - versity revealed that Duterte had on cyber trolls and bots that operated to manipulate social pro- government propaganda and fake news, and identify, harass and abuse individuals and groups voicing opposition. In Mocha Uson was appointed assistant secretary of presidential communications. She served to galvanize the already bizarre and ugly cast of characters functioning as the President’s liars, manure the alumni association of the pious University of Santo Tomas presented citizenship and public service.
Then there are the killings of broadcasters and columnists from assassinated since Duterte’s inauguration until mid-2017.
Philippines stems from the warped mindset of the country’s leader. The realization process is proving to be swift and deadly and part of a distinct authoritarian pattern.