Statement of support for IPI following cyber-attacks

IPI reported a wave of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the website following the publication of a report on DDoS attacks against media outlets in Hungary.

The attacks against IPI are illustrative of how opponents of free media are finding ways of censoring critical voices without following legislative avenues – and that their targets are moving beyond journalists and media outlets to civil society organisations and other support mechanisms. While the attacks cannot be traced to a single source, it cannot be ignored that the attacks against IPI began only two days after the publication of a report about similar attacks against more than 40 media platforms in Hungary. IMS extends our support and solidarity to these outlets as they continue distributing information, even as they fight faceless adversaries.

Press freedom requires that journalists, media, civil society and other advocates are able to do their work unimpeded and in safety. Cyber-attacks on an organisation’s digital platforms are another way authoritarian governments and their actors are silencing critical voices, and it is necessary for independent media and civil society to work together to find technological solutions and to resist these attempts at censorship.

IPI’s report on the situation in Hungary is available here: Hungary: DDoS cyber-attacks post major new threat to media freedom.