There may have been a decrease in the number of journalists killed in the Philippines last year, but the country still remains one of the most dangerous countries for the media, according to the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres, RSF).
In its 2017 World Press Freedom Index, the Philippines ranked 127th most dangerous out of the 180 countries surveyed, with a global score of 41.08. This is 11 places higher, an improvement compared to 138th place with a score of 44.66 points last year.
RSF, however, warned that “the insults and open threats against the media by President Rodrigo Duterte, another new strongman, do not bode well.”
“The media are fairly free and diverse, but Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn in as president in June 2016, has alarmed media freedom defenders with his unveiled encouragement of violence against journalists, it said.
According to RSF, tools like private militias and blocktiming “blur” the Philippine “frontiers of journalism.”
Read more here.
