While most Philippine presidents start their administrations with a 'honeymoon' stage with the media, former President Rodrigo Duterte started on controversial grounds. On 1 June 2016, even before he was officially sworn in, Duterte held a press conference in which he justified the killing of corrupt journalists. While he later backtracked due to the strong reaction from media groups, this statement foreshadowed further attacks against the media during his presidency.In his second State of the Nation Address in July 2017, Duterte named two news organisations that would suffer the most attacks during his term: ABS-CBN, the country's biggest television network, and Rappler, a major online news outlet known for its activist stance. Earlier that month, Duterte also launched tirades against the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the biggest national broadsheet. The statements and attacks would not remain empty threats, as Duterte would soon mobilise various government agencies to curtail these organisations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.