NUJP website shut down by hackers

Is the clampdown on media merely intensifying at this point? Is this another government effort to stifle the press?

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines today reports:

The NUJP expresses concern over the shutting down of its website today, March 1. The site could not be accessed practically the whole day Wednesday after somebody hacked into its database server and tried to delete or change files.

According to the NUJP's web host, the hacker or hackers also illegally made too many connections to the database that prevented other users or readers from accessing the site. (The site was up by late afternoon Wednesday.)

The website has been publishing statements, manifestos and updates condemning the latest crackdown by the government on the Philippine press. It also serves as a database of the numerous attacks and murders of journalists in the Philippines. Many journalists and citizens from around the world refer to the site for materials on press freedom in the
Philippines.

In view of the attempts by the Arroyo administration to muzzle or intimidate the press through Proclamation 1017, which the NUJP deems inimical to press freedom, to civil liberties and to the public interest, preventing us from publishing our website is distressing, to say the least. This is no different from forcibly closing down a publication.

The government must stop trying to intimidate journalists. We urge our colleagues in the press to defy Proclamation 1017 and resist the efforts by this government to violate our basic freedoms.