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For human rights group Karapatan, they see no other actor that would have the resources and motivation to take down their website but the Duterte administration.
"These attacks only benefit those who want to silence us and our human rights work amid a pervasive state of impunity in the country."
These attacks underscore once again how far the Duterte administration can go in silencing the press. The recent cyberattacks are not isolated from other forms of assault on the Philippine media. These are part of Duterte’s arsenal of weapons as a “predator of press freedom,” an apt description from the Reporters Without Borders.
We are not surprised by the results of the recent digital forensic. State agents and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have consistently labeled us as communist fronts for pursuing journalism for the people. Still, we are angered that taxpayers’ money is being spent to bring down our website, and to deny our readers access to our reportage.
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.