It has been no secret that the Philippines is a dangerous place for those daring to speak truth against the powers that be.
According to the global media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières/RSF), the Philippines ranked 114th in its 2025 Press Freedom Index.
While our country inched up by two points from last year’s 116th, our press freedom score has dropped from 49.57 to just 46.79 out of 100.
RSF did not hesitate to call out that the Philippines is now just a "democracy on paper", citing a rising trend of using legal tactics by "authoritarian states, complicit or incompetent political powers, [and] predatory economic actors" to muzzle press freedom.
After all, silencing the press is not just manifested in killing media personalities or shutting down media outlets like what happened during the Martial Law era of former President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.
The recent arrests of journalists Jay Sonza and the entrapment operation against online media operator Franco Mabanta only serves to hammer home the point.
Several sectors, even those who oppose the political stances of these two media personalities, have raised the alarm on the apparent willful use of our laws to stifle free speech.
Whatever their political leanings may be, we must not deny that Sonza and Mabanta should also be allowed to exercise the freedom and leeway to express their views to the public.
This, after all, is the foundation of true, participative democracy.
No wonder some are beginning to ask: Are we now in a "soft" Martial Law - where pressure is put on media not by outright iron-fist leadership, but by using the letter of the law to destroy its spirit?
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