(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 27 June 2005, hackers breached the website of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), according to reports from Manila. Police are investigating the incident. According to PCIJ executive director Sheila Coronel, the website was back in operation as of 2:00 p.m. (local time) on 28 June. She added that there had […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 27 June 2005, hackers breached the website of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), according to reports from Manila. Police are investigating the incident.
According to PCIJ executive director Sheila Coronel, the website was back in operation as of 2:00 p.m. (local time) on 28 June. She added that there had been a second attempt that same morning but it did not disrupt the website operation.
Coronel said the hacker left a message saying he was a Filipino and quite well-known in the local IT community. “We don’t know if he did this on his own or because he was paid for it. We are suspicious because of the timing – our site has been carrying the audio tapes of the president’s conversations with an elections official and last night she [the president] apologised for making the calls,” she told SEAPA on 28 June.
She said there had been no further intrusions on the site since the installation of the safeguard system.
PCIJ, a founding member of SEAPA, had received warnings from its own sources that “there was a contract out for hackers to hack us,” Coronel earlier told the largest national daily, “Philippine Daily Inquirer”.
The PCIJ is one of the most respected news organisations in the Philippines. It annually reaps the country’s most prestigious journalism awards, and its in-depth reports on corruption, government incompetence and social ills have arguably influenced the course of the country’s recent history. The toppling of the Estrada administration in 2001 was attributed, in part, to PCIJ’s investigative stories on the former president’s unexplained wealth.
Meanwhile, the centre has been reporting on the travails of the current president’s family. Public confidence in President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been significantly shaken by allegations of electoral fraud and by corruption charges against her husband, son, and brother-in-law, allegedly linked to illegal gambling operations.
The PCIJ’s website – and in particular its in-house blog – earlier this month posted mp3 files and transcripts of a leaked wiretap suggesting that President Arroyo had had improper contact with election officials while the ballots were being counted for the last national elections. The PCIJ website struggled to cope with a deluge of download requests, and it became one of the most popular sites for Internet surfers seeking more information on the scandal.
