Independent media outlet Bulatlat has been consistently subjected to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks since April this year, which further intensified after the second anniversary of the government order to block Bulatlat and 26 other alternative news outlets’ websites on June 6.

Since its establishment in 2001, Bulatlat has reported the challenges faced by marginalized sectors, amplifying their struggles and achievements. But its service is left paralyzed whenever it faces these DDoS attacks.

DDoS attacks aim to overwhelm a server with too much internet traffic or a large number of accounts visit a website to make it inaccessible to other users.

Since the attacks, Bulatlat has requested Qurium Media Foundation to investigate the incidents. Qurium handles the digital forensics of the media outlet, with its primary concerns being internet censorship, disinformation campaigns, DDoS attacks, and targeted phishing campaigns against media and human rights organizations.

“Noong nagkaroon ng initial investigation, multiple layer yung restriction sa website namin. So we wrote a letter to PLDT asking for clarification kasi supposedly hindi naman dapat nila arbitrarily bina-block yung website,” Bulatlat community manager Dominic Gutoman told the Collegian in an interview.

Telecom company PLDT responded last week, saying that the Bulatlat website's inaccessibility was a mere technical glitch.

But the history of censorship against Bulatlat says otherwise: Back in 2021, Qurium traced a cyber-attack from the Philippine army. Gutoman, however, clarified that Qurium has not yet identified the source of the recent wave of DDoS attacks which has persisted for three months.

Despite this, Bulatlat continues its operations by relying on its mirror website bulatlat.org, similar to the system that alternative news site Pinoy Weekly implements to avoid blockage and grant readers continued access to their reportage.

“We continue our reportage on human rights kung sa social media navigation man yan or by clinching our network with other alternative media outlets,” Gutoman said.

Bulatlat has long been a victim of media repression by the state. On June 6, 2022, then National Security Adviser and retired general Hermogenes Esperon Jr. requested the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block the 27 websites, citing baseless terrorist links. The NTC complied two days later.

This violates the constitutional right of Bulatlat and other groups to publish, as well as the public's rights to free speech and free expression, as no provision in the Anti-Terror Act nor the Cybercrime Prevention Act gives NTC the authority to order the blocking of websites.

The Philippine press, despite being the “freest in Asia,” as claimed by the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, continues to be silenced. In media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’s 2024 press freedom index, the country ranked 132nd among 180 countries.

Although there have been fewer and less violent attacks against journalists and media workers since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took the reins from former President Rodrigo Duterte, “harassment by means of threats and ‘red-tagging’ persist, while defamation and cyber-defamation are still punishable by prison sentences,” the media watchdog noted.

For now, Bulatlat is also maximizing solidarity works and partnerships with civil society organizations and other alternative media outlets to ensure that the case will be transparent, just, and monitored not only by Bulatlat but also by the 26 other websites affected by the NTC website blocking order.

“Lagi’t lagi na nakahanda ang mga mamamahayag hindi lang dito sa Bulatlat, kundi yung buong media sector to fight back against censorship,” Gutoman said. ●

First published in the July 22, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.