NUJP website downed by ‘massive’ denial of service attack

MANILA, Philippines – The website of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has been taken down by what members report was a “massive denial of service attack.”

Writing on its Facebook page, the NUJP said the attack occurred on Monday evening, January 9.

The page “can no longer be accessed,” the organization said.

A denial of service attack is a form of cyber attack where the attacker tries to take down a site or service by flooding it with unnecessary requests. This overloads the systems and prevents legitimate requests for access to get through.

Enemies of press freedom, free expression

The NUJP called the cyberattacker an enemy “of press freedom and of free expression.”

“They are vermin, narrow-minded, misbegotten souls who mistakenly believe that they can silence critical speech and thought in their desire to force people into accepting only one worldview – theirs,” the post said. “But they can do their worst. They will never succeed.”

“The independent Philippine press, the independent Filipino journalists, and the freedom-loving Filipino people will make sure of this, as we have done in the past and as we will do so again and again whenever basic rights and liberties are assaulted,” the post continued.

The NUJP previously asked the Palace to investigate attacks against journalists on social media.– Rappler.com