DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The website of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines was down Monday night due to a massive denial of service attack.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the NUJP website couldn’t be accessed.
“We do not know by whom but this we can say – whoever are responsible for this attack are enemies of press freedom and of free expression,” NUJP Chairman Ryan Rosauro said in a statement Monday, January 10.
“They are vermin, narrow-minded, misbegotten souls who mistakenly believe that they can silence critical speech and thought in their desire to force people into accepting only one worldview – theirs,” he added.
This is not the first time that NUJP’s website was hacked. In 2006, a similar hacking incident also shut down the group’s website after hackers were able to intrude NUJP’s web host and made some illegal connections on its database which prevented users from accessing the website.
Last year, a score of journalists were “bullied” online because of their stories critical to the Duterte administration.
The hacking incident came as the mainstream media was accused by supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte of being biased.
The group said Monday that the hackers “can do their worst” but “they will never succeed.”
“The independent Philippine press, the independent Filipino journalists, and the freedom-loving Filipino people will make sure of this, as we have done in the past and as we will do so again and again whenever basic rights and liberties are assaulted,” it said. (davaotoday.com)
