KARAPATAN is in solidarity with Filipino journalists and media workers as they mark World Press Freedom Day today, the 3rd of May 2025.
Filipino media workers and journalists continue to be under attack by State forces, with the latest cases involving the weaponization of laws against media practitioners.
Tacloban City-based community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio has been detained since February 2020 on manufactured charges of financing terrorism and illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Together with human rights defender Alexander Abinguna, she has also recently been slapped with new trumped-up charges of double murder and multiple frustrated murder in an apparent bid by the State to prolong their unjust detention.
Meanwhile, Cagayan-based photojournalist and environmental defender Deo Montesclaros has been facing a bogus terrorism financing complaint along with five other Northern Luzon activists since January 2025.
To date, the National Telecommunications Commission has refused to lift a June 2022 order to shut down the websites of alternative media outfits Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly. The order had been instigated by then national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
According to the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, there have been 177 documented attacks against the media, including the killing on April 29, 2025 of veteran journalist Juan Dayang in Kalibo, Aklan, under the Marcos Jr. regime. Despite moving up the ladder since 2024, the Philippines remains in the bottom half of 180 countries rated by Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, with journalists still facing constant threats of violence and harassment.
KARAPATAN fully supports journalists and media workers in their unrelenting efforts to advance press freedom in defiance of the continuing attacks against their ranks.