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Ordering the shutdown of ABS-CBN in the middle of a pandemic is a blatant attack on press freedom that dangerously infringes on the people’s right to information, human rights watchdog Karapatan warned, as the group assailed the National Telecommunications Commission’s cease-and-desist order against the broadcasting network.

Karapatan stands in solidarity with journalists and freedom of expression advocates against this blatant attack on press freedom with the recent National Telecommunications Commission’s cease and desist order against ABS-CBN. It is truly abhorrent that this order comes in the middle of a public health crisis where the free press plays a crucial role in keeping the public informed on relevant, verified, and life-saving information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the Supreme Court deliberates on the petition for the humanitarian release of prisoners today, human rights alliance Karapatan sounded alarm over the possible underreporting of deaths of inmates as the group reiterated its urgent demand to decongest jails by granting temporary liberty for vulnerable prisoners, including political prisoners, especially the sick and elderly with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country’s detention facilities.

Human rights group Karapatan assailed the “brutality and sheer lack of compassion” of the Duterte administration as it enforced a “policy of mass arrests and fascism instead of addressing mass hunger and the grossly inadequate government response on International Workers’ Day.”

Human rights watchdog Karapatan strongly condemned the assassination of Bayan Muna – Iloilo City coordinator Jose Reynaldo “Jory” Porquia at 5 a.m. earlier today, April 30, in his coffee shop at Brgy. Sto. Niño, Arevalo District, Iloilo City by four masked men suspected to be State agents. Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said that “it is simply wretched that this campaign of State terror and violence continues even in the middle of a global pandemic.”