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Asia's strongmen follow Trump's lead on fake news

Spies.

An iceberg of misinformation, and a media that acts as a mafia.

And, of course, fake news.

These are some of the terms leaders across Southeast Asia are using to discredit journalists and media outlets -- and the rhetoric is morphing into action, with arrests of journalists and the shuttering of news sites across the region.

In the Philippines, an independent news site, which has been accused of being fake news by the countrys leader, Rodrigo Duterte, faces closure after the countrys SEC pulled its license.

Elsewhere, two journalists in Myanmar are facing charges filed while they were reporting on the Rohingya crisis for Reuters.

In nearby Cambodia, a US-funded news organization shut its local bureau down; shortly after, two of its former reporters were arrested.

Analysts and observers say Asias strongman leaders have been emboldened by the lack of criticism of their heavy-handed tactics from Washington and the administration of President Donald Trump, himself a fierce and persistent critic of the press.

Its a worrying trend, says Shawn Crispin, Senior Southeast Asia Representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

It looks as though theyre taking cues from one of the countries that (traditionally) protected press freedom, the United States.   College students participate in a protest to defend press freedom in Manila on January 17, 2018.

Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes government on January 17 urged reporters of a news website facing state-enforced closure to reinvent themselves as bloggers, rejecting allegations Manila was cracking down on the free press.

/ AFP PHOTO / Noel CELIS (Photo credit should read NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images) Shutdown threat Last week, the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -- ostensibly an independent, non-political organization -- announced that it would be rescinding the license for the online news site Rappler.

At the heart of the issue was a claim by the SEC that Rappler, an upstart online news portal in the Philippines, had violated the countrys constitution and that its registration would be revoked over foreign ownership rules.

Rappler has strongly denied the claims.

The news organization, which was founded in 2012, has in recent years reported extensively on the Duterte administrations bloody, controversial war on drugs.

An employee of online portal Rappler heads out from their editorial office in Manila on January 15, 2018, while a private security guard stands.

Why were we given such a harsh penalty? It seems linked directly to the criticism, the questions we continue to ask in holding the government accountable, Rappler founder and CEO Maria Ressa said.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told CNN affiliate CNN Philippines that the office of the president had nothing to do with the SEC decision. Following the threat of closure, Rappler reported that the Department of Justice and its National Bureau of Investigation had summoned Ressa -- who is a former CNN reporter -- in a subpoena for a libel case for a story written in 2012.

She says that the SEC and DOJ actions are attempts to intimidate her outlet, and has vowed to explore every available legal avenue.

Fake news Duterte has been disparaging of the media -- taking his cues, some analysts say, from Trumps own playbook.

What were seeing now is, again, the term fake news cropping up and thats what Dutertes used against Rappler, says Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism at Queensland University.

(That) follows President Trumps lead, in branding any news organization that he doesnt like, or any news organization which will publish a story that is uncomfortable to his government, as fake news..