Philippine Journalists Targeted By Smear Campaign - Media Union

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) warned Monday that claims on members of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) having links to the local outlawed communist movement put journalist lives at risk

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2019) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) warned Monday that claims on members of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) having links to the local outlawed communist movement put journalist lives at risk.

On July 7, posters claiming that NUJP members belonged to the Communist Party of the Philippines appeared on the wall of a church in the Philippines' Northern Mindanao administrative region. Manila has been fighting communist militia for decades and recently designated the party a terrorist organization.

"These continued attacks and false labelling of journalists puts journalist lives at risk.

We demand authorities increase efforts to guarantee the safety of journalists in the Philippines," IFJ said.

Catholic priests and human rights groups in this Southeast Asian nation have increasingly fallen victim to so-called red-tagging, an intimidation tactic that aims to silence opponents of the right-wing Philippine government by labelling them as Communists.

Rights groups accuse Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's administration of thousands of extrajudicial killings during its three-year crackdown on alleged drug dealers. A UN human rights body voted last week to probe the "war on drugs" for suspected crimes against humanity.