NO TAG: Press Freedom for Pluralism

From Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) to Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (2022-present), the Philippine government has denied or downplayed the existence of red-tagging, or the longtime practice of labeling dissenters as communists in order to silence them,
threaten them, or undermine their work. Until a Supreme Court decision made public on May 8, 2024, there was no clear legal definition of red-tagging, which enabled the government for so long to deny the practice, and further, to deny the state policy by practice.

We found the opposite. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the biggest lateral organization of Filipino journalists, conducted a survey and focus group discussions (FGD) among journalists who have been red-tagged during the presidencies of Duterte and Marcos. The study finds that as high as 60% or more than half of the red-tagging incidents in the last  eight years have been state-sponsored, and 19.8% of the redtagging by State employed the intimidating method of dropping by, or sending a letter, that cites different government policies as the basis. The rest of the red-tagging incidents were perpetrated by influencers or unknown individuals or groups. The red-tagging incidents by unknown perpetrators sometimes used physical methods like posters, but used mostly social media means that were amplified by the network of pro-Duterte or pro-Marcos accounts.