How are Filipino journalists faring under a new administration? As the journalism industry faces news avoidance, distrust from audiences, and decreased reach worldwide, reporters themselves grapple with media closures, low pay, and even threats to their lives. 2024 Nieman Fellow Jaemark Tordecilla and communication consultant Mika Ortega join us in the Season 1 finale to reflect on these challenges and how journalists can still find reason to hope.

Red-tagging is one of the biggest threats Filipino journalists face today. In 2018, the Duterte administration created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which, along with the Anti-Terror Law, has been deployed against government critics, including the media. Len Olea of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and Rhea Padilla of the AlterMidya network discuss the dangers of red-tagging, its effects on local reportage, and notable cases of red-tagging in recent years.

Radio and online journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio was 21 years old when she was arrested by the police who accused her of being part of the Communist movement in the Philippines. She had been reporting on human rights abuses in remote areas in Tacloban City, hundreds of kilometers away from the nation’s capital. After four years, she finally took the witness stand on 11 November to defend herself. Her lawyer Julianne Agpalo talks about the latest development in her case. 

Producer Tricia Aquino introduces the Philippines and its media landscape through interviews with veteran journalists Lourdes Fernandez and Rowena Paraan. Follow the story of the local press across several decades, from the Marcos dictatorship where many reporters were killed, imprisoned, tortured, or became victims of enforced disappearances, to the more recent Maguindanao massacre, where 32 journalists were killed alongside the political rivals of the most powerful family in the province.

Veteran journalists Lourdes Fernandez and Rowena Paraan join us in Episode 3 to shed light on two of the darkest periods for the Philippine press, and how it has fought to uphold its duty of reporting the truth. Subscribe now and hear the episode first on 8 November.

When disinformation spreads faster than facts, how can democracy thrive? Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa talks about the beginnings of media company Rappler as social media first showed promise as a new avenue for journalism, and the mounting challenges she and Rappler have faced in the age of social media's decline—from the propagation of lies, to lawsuits from the Philippine government and vicious attacks by its supporters, to the dominance of big tech.

In our next episode, Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa talks about co-founding media company Rappler and its place in the early days of social media, and how she and the company have weathered the decline of social media and the Philippines' institutions. Subscribe now to catch the episode on 18 October.

JHR Executive Director Bill Killorn and Filipina journalist Tricia Aquino join host Lisa LaFlamme to talk about the state of journalism around the globe and look back on JHR's visit to the Philippines in November 2023, which inspired the first season of this podcast. On this trip, Lisa and Bill met journalists and human rights advocates during the anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre—the deadliest single attack on journalists in history back in 2009.

In this all-new podcast from Journalists for Human Rights, hosted by veteran journalist Lisa LaFlamme, we celebrate the power of journalism as a force for change all over the world. Subscribe now to hear the first episode on October 1.