“The Department of Justice just declared war — not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself. This is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media,” tweeted former National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden on May 23.
press freedom
The arrest of Julian Assange is an explicit warning towards journalists. What happened to the founder and editor of WikiLeaks can happen to you on a newspaper, you in a TV studio, you on radio, you running a podcast, writes John Pilger.
The following statement on the February 13 arrest of Filipino journalist Maria Ressa was issued by the Filipino human rights movement, iDefend.
iDefend condemns the arrest of Maria Ressa by the National Bureau of Investigation on February 13 on charges of cyber-libel.
Ressa’s arrest is the latest demonstration of how government critics are silenced in a manner which mirrors a familiar style of the late Marcos dictatorship.
Press freedom in the Philippines is under increasing threat following the arrest and prosecution of journalist Maria Ressa, a critic of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, writes Merck Maguddayao.
“We have just received urgent news from West Papua that 200 people have been arrested and 26 tortured by Indonesian police, two days before Indonesia hosts the World Press Freedom Day in Jakarta,” the Free West Papua Campaign said on May 1.