Host Oscar Perress talked to contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch Sri Krishnamurthi today about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s government rejecting a licence for the country’s biggest radio and TV network ABS-CBN.

Its 25-year-old franchise expired in May but the majority of legislators refused to renew in a threat to the post-Marcos democratic constitution.

This was the lead issue on the Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment of Radio 95bFM’s The Wire.

LISTEN: PMC Southern Cross podcasts

“The parliamentarians who rejected this request for a new franchise will go down in history as legislators who preferred to support the ruling caste’s personal interests instead of defending the spirit of the 1987 constitution,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF Asia-Pacific news desk.

The vote count was overwhelmingly 70-11 against awarding the new franchise.

Southern Cross then discussed a comment piece from Benny Wenda, chair of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua.

He was adamant in his commentary article that when the 2001 special autonomy statute expires this year that it was time for the people of West Papua to reject Indonesian-controlled “autonomy” and the only solution was an independence referendum.

“There is only one just, democratic and feasible solution for West Papua: our right to self-determination, exercised through a referendum on independence,” Wenda claimed.

And once again the Philippines was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

This time it was the #HoldTheLine support for the brave Maria Ressa who is being backed by 60 freedom groups, including the Pacific Media Centre.

At the weekend the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the launch of the #HoldTheLine campaign in support of journalist Ressa and independent media under attack in the Philippines.

Acting in coordination with Ressa and her legal team, representatives from the three groups have formed the steering committee and are working alongside dozens of partners on the global campaign and reporting initiatives.

They hope to drup up 30,000 signatures.

Rappler’s chief executive Maria Ressa on June 20 was, alongside her colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr, convicted of “cyber-libel” – a criminal charge for which they could face six years in prison.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The Paris-based media freedom watchdog has urged support for the #HoldTheLine coalition as the way to respond.

TV screens will remain dark and radio sets silent as a result of yesterday’s decision by the House Committee on Legislative Franchises to drive the final nails into the ABS-CBN network’s coffin.

READ MORE: #HoldTheLine campaign launched to back Maria Ressa, independent media

Last May, the Philippine congress refused to renew the network’s 25-year franchise when it expired. Today the committee voted overwhelmingly, by 70 votes to 11, not to give it a new one.

Between the two decisions, ABS-CBN’s representatives argued their cause in a series of 13 hearings lasting a total of around 100 hours.

But the committee’s members, most of whom support President Rodrigo Duterte, responded with a range of accusations against the network’s management, including tax evasion and violation of the law on foreign investment in the media.

“Rump parliament”
Above all, they implied that any decision to give ABS-CBN’s TV channels and radio stations a new franchise would be conditioned on a change in editorial policy and on coverage favourable to the Duterte administration’s nationalist and populist policies. The network refused.

This means that ABS-CBN has little chance of getting a new franchise before the end of the current legislature in 2022 – a legislature in which the overwhelming majority behaves likes a “rump parliament” blindly following the executive, said RSF in a statement.

“The parliamentarians who rejected this request for a new franchise will go down in history as legislators who preferred to support the ruling caste’s personal interests instead of defending the spirit of the 1987 constitution,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“This vote is like a thunderbolt in the Philippine media landscape’s already troubled sky. It should be noted that, in a sign of how the independent media are persecuted, many of the spurious arguments used by parliamentarians hostile to ABS-CBN were identical to those that government agencies have been using against the Rappler news website.”

Repeated attacks
Rappler and its CEO, Maria Ressa, are also charged with tax evasion and violating the law on foreign investment in the media although “even the quickest analysis shows that the cases against them are riddled with legal inconsistencies”, said RSF.

Compounding all the previous judicial harassment, Ressa and a former Rappler reporter, Reynaldo Santos Jr, were convicted last month on a “Kafkaesque cyber-libel charge” carrying a sentence of up to six years in prison.

In response to these “repeated attacks on the Fourth Estate by the Duterte clique, which has managed to corrupt both legislature and judiciary”, RSF has launched an international “HoldTheLine” campaign in support of independent media that are trying to hold out in the Philippines.

An online petition demands the withdrawal of all the spurious charges against Maria Ressa, Rappler and its journalists.

The Philippines is ranked 136th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, two places lower than in 2019.

The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project is an associate of Reporters Without Borders.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

More than 30 media freedom groups, journalists and academics have combined in an international statement today condemning the closure of the largest Philippine television network and calling on President Rodrigo Duterte to “urgently reinstate” the broadcaster.

In a statement by the Australian-based Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF), director Peter Greste said the Filipino public “greatly needs reliable information” amid the global covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

“We cannot beat this virus without knowledge through transparency, and cooperation through communication,” he said.

READ MORE: Rappler’s Maria Ressa raps Duterte for ‘security’ violations

Professor Greste said closing the broadcaster ABS-CBN at this time was “unconscionable”.

The signatories include the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), Dart Centre Asia Pacific, Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), Public Interest Journalism Initiative, RMIT, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, University of Melbourne’s Centre for Media and Communication Law; and Rappler, the leading digital news website of the Philippines.

The only New Zealand signatory was Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre.

Professor Greste, who is also UNESCO chair of journalism and communication at the University of Queensland, said in the statement:

The statement
“At times of crisis, reliable information is a key part of society’s ability to cope and respond. In the context of the Covid19 pandemic, the closure of broadcaster ABS-CBN is unconscionable.

“Lack of a free media makes democracy vulnerable, fractures societies and undermines trust in institutions – especially in Government.

“The Filipino public greatly needs reliable information. This is particularly the case given the well documented vulnerability of the Philippines to fake news spread through Facebook.

“We cannot beat this virus without knowledge through transparency, and cooperation through communication.

“Governments have a responsibility to maintain their democratic and social systems, and a free media plays an essential role within that.

“The closure of ABS-CBN makes the Philippines a less healthy society, and also undermines the ability of the region and the world to respond to this crisis.

“We, the undersigned journalists, press freedom groups and media organisations have come together to call on you to urgently reinstate ABS-CBN’s operating license and make an ongoing commitment to press freedom.

“Join us in maintaining a regional and global standard.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

Rappler publisher and chief editor Maria Ressa was critical today of the Philippines administration under President Rodrigo Duterte for its focus on “security” rather than public health in the global covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on RNZ public radio’s Saturday Morning current affairs programme in a week in which the government closed the country’s top television and radio network, ABS-CBN, Ressa condemned the shooting of three citizens during the Manila lockdown so far.

Asked by presenter Kim Hill how the Philippine capital was faring under the pandemic restrictions, Ressa said the Philippines government was “still more focused on security rather than public health”.

LISTEN: Rappler publisher Maria Ressa talks to RNZ Saturday Morning’s Kim Hill

Acknowledging that levels of testing had increased in her homeland as in many other countries, she added, “It’s just that our president quite early on said, ‘shoot them dead’ if [dissenters] violate the quarantine. It is as crazy as that!”

Kim Hill: “And have there been any shot dead?”

“There have been three cases since President Duterte said that on April 1.

“A 63-year-old farmer was stopped at a checkpoint because he was not wearing a facemask … and shot dead …

‘Just like a blip’
“It is just like a blip. I wrote about it for Time magazine at the time…

“Just a week ago a former colonel in the military with PTSD was stopped at a checkpoint by police – who are dressed like the military and wearing fatigues … and they shot and killed him.

“And then just this Sunday … there was this Spanish man who the police tried to arrest in his own home and that is unconstitutional.”

Ressa added, “Again it is an abuse, an over-reliance on violence and arrests. We have had 30,000 arrests since lockdown at a time when the courts are not working.

“So how do these people post bail?”

READ MORE: We can’t let the virus infect democracy – Maria Ressa

Ressa’s work exposing government corruption and the misdeeds of the powerful has put her on a collision course with the ‘strongman’ government of President Duterte.

Lead investigative journalist
She spent nearly 20 years working as CNN’s lead investigative journalist in Southeast Asia before setting up the independent website Rappler in her homeland.

Now, in what critics describe as a politically motivated prosecution, she’s being accused of cyber-libel and tax evasion. The prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is among her admirers, and is defending her at her trial

“This is my 34th year as a journalist and I would never have thought I would be arrested for doing my job. I was arrested twice in a five-week period, then I was detained once – experiences I wish I didn’t have, but it gave me a clear personal experience of the abuse of power.”

Ressa said they were politically motivated charges meant to stifle press freedom.

“Truth is critical in any democracy,” Ressa said.

“I became the cautionary tale for journalists.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Rappler justice reporter Lian Buan talks to ABS-CBN’s Mike Navallo who broke the report about the shutdown. Video: Rappler

Pacific Media Watch

For the first time since dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in the Philippines in 1972, ABS-CBN Channel 2 was this week forced to go off the air, reports Rappler.

ABS-CBN News has reported that Solicitor-General Jose Calida pressured the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to issue a cease and desist order, despite earlier promises by the NTC leaders that it would allow the network to provisionally air after its franchise expired on May 4.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, who is being blamed for the shutdown, has given the same observation.

Rappler justice reporter Lian Buan talks to ABS-CBN’s Mike Navallo who broke the report, and who covers the justice beat, as the broadcast giant finds itself figuring in the Duterte administration’s legal actions against dissenters.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

The Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) has called on the Australian government to make strong diplomatic representations to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to reinstate ABS-CBN’s television operating licence.

It has also urged Duterte to make an ongoing commitment to press freedom – particularly now at the height of the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

“This is an outrage. It is another example of Duterte’s continuing war on press freedom,” JERAA president Alex Wake said in a statement in response to the closure of the largest and most influential Philippine television and radio network.

READ MORE: Rappler challenges ‘media powers’ in democracy fight back

The Duterte administration ordered the closure of ABS-CBN this week after its operating licence lapsed on May 4. ABS-CBN is a private enterprise whose network reaches internationally, providing a service to Filipinos around the world.

This is the third media organisation that has been “interfered” with in the four years since Duterte was sworn in as President and stated: “Just because you’re a journalist, you’re not exempt from assassination, if you are a son of a bitch.”

Duterte’s actions are having a chilling effect on Philippine media freedom, encouraging self-censorship by reporters and media outlets fearful of government reprisals for critical reporting at a time when the media’s role in reporting the pandemic is vital, Dr Wake said in the statement.

Even before this closure, the Philippines had dropped two further places on the RSF World Press Freedom Index, now sitting at 136th (Australia is situated at number 26 by comparison).

Background:
President Duterte has labelled broadcaster ABS-CBN and the Philippine Daily Inquirer as “sons of whores”, and warned of repercussions over their criticism of him.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer had been one of the most vocal critics of the administration and its former owners, despite being one of the wealthy scions in the country, did not interfere in the editorial content.

The Duterte administration has also conducted a judicial harassment campaign against Rappler chief editor and publisher Maria Ressa and her online news outlet, one of the country’s most prominent independent news organisations.

Rappler angered Duterte with its criticism of him and by publishing a transcript of a call with Donald Trump, during which the US President praised Duterte’s murderous “drug war” and invited him to the White House, the JERAA statement said.

Ressa and her staff have received threats of death, sexual assault and more.

The persecution of Philippine journalists has been accompanied by online harassment campaigns waged by pro-Duterte troll armies, which also launched cyber-attacks on alternative news websites and the site of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Filipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) today issued a cease-and-desist order against ABS-CBN Corporation, the major television broadcaster in the Philippines, after its 25-year broadcast franchise expired on May 4.

The shutdown order, coming down amid the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, places in danger some 11,000 jobs in the country’s biggest media network.

“Upon the expiration of RA (Republic Act) 7966 (ABS-CBN franchise), ABS-CBN Corporation no longer has a valid and subsisting congressional franchise,” the NTC order said.

READ MORE: RSF warns shutdown order a ‘fatal blow’ against media freedom if carried out

It said ABS-CBN should “immediately” shut down five AM radio stations, 18 FM radio stations, 42 TV stations, and 10 digital terrestrial television broadcasting stations “for implementation,” and comment within 10 days why its broadcast frequencies should not be pulled.

ABS-CBN said it would comply with the NTC order and shut down at 7 pm. The ABS-CBN News channel said it would continue brioadcasts as it was not covered by the NTC order.

On Sunday, Solicitor-General Jose Calida, an appointee of President Rodrigo Duterte, warned the NTC that it faced graft charges if it gave the Lopez-led ABS-CBN a provisional authority or temporary licence to operate.

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises had written to the NTC asking it to allow ABS-CBN to operate beyond the expiry date of its licence, while Congress deliberated on a new franchise.

Temporary licence expected
On March 10, the NTC assured the House panel that it would grant ABS-CBN a temporary licence, as this was the practice in the case of broadcast companies whose applications for franchise remained pending before lawmakers.

In February, Calida had asked the Supreme Court to void ABS-CBN’s franchise, citing supposed violations such as skirting the constitutional ban on foreign equity.

Duterte denies Calida was doing his bidding but in the past had threatened to shut down the network over an election ad dispute and critical news coverage.

Senators Franklin Drilon and Francis Pangilinan condemned the NTC’s action and urged ABS-CBN to seek redress from the Supreme Court.

Albay Republican Edcel Lagman said the exchanges between NTC and lawmakers in March seemed to be a charade and that the ultimate goal was to close ABS-CBN.

“I have explained this over and over again that the provisional authority is not the solution,” he told the ABS-CBN News channel.

Lagman said ABS-CBN’s shutdown was the “death knell” to freedom of the press and doomed the livelihoods of thousands of workers.

But not all is lost as Congress has resumed sessions and could tackle the ABS-CBN franchise, he said.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and publishes the independent news blog PressOne. He is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

Philippines Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has dismissed comments by Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go that “politics” is behind the filing of a proposed concurrent resolution calling on regulators to temporarily allow television giant ABS-CBN to operate as Congress deliberates on its franchise application.

The Senate has the prerogative to pass a concurrent resolution expressing its “sense” on the matter, which does not have the force of law, unlike a joint resolution that needs to be passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives and signed by the president, Drilon told reporters on Wednesday.

“Being a neophyte senator, he (Go) may not be aware of our tradition and our rules. Precisely, a concurrent resolution does not go through the president because it has no force and effect of a law. It is just a sense of the Senate. There is no politics here,” Drilon said.

READ MORE: ‘Speak truth to power’ – Varsitarian reports

“We are not depriving the President of the right to veto or approve,” he added.

Drilon’s earlier proposed joint resolution seeks to extend ABS-CBN’s franchise until the end of 2022, prompting an accusation from Go that opposition senators did not want President Rodrigo Duterte to have a hand on the issue. Duterte steps down on June 30, 2022.

Go, on Monday’s Senate inquiry into the ABS-CBN franchise, gave an idea as to why the Duterte-controlled House of Representatives was stalling on the TV network’s licence renewal.

He said Duterte was displeased over ABS-CBN’s supposed refusal to air his 2016 campaign ad that was a response to an attack ad financed by an arch-critic, then senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

ABS-CBN on Monday said Commission on Election restrictions in the final stretch of the 2016 campaign prevented the Duterte ad from being aired, and that it returned the payment, but Duterte refused to accept it.

Go countered that it took a year for ABS-CBN to address the Duterte campaign’s grievance. “Remember, in an election campaign, especially in a presidential campaign, there is no tomorrow. Every second matters,” he said.

Guevarra vs Puno
Drilon, along with Senator Grace Poe, also dismissed comments by retired chief justice Reynato Puno that ABS-CBN cannot operate when its 25-year franchise expires, based on a 2003 court ruling.

The franchise expires on May 4, 2020, reckoned from the date of effectivity of 15 days after publication, which is April 19, 1995, according to the Department of Justice.

Drilon said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s opinion – that ABS-CBN could be allowed to operate on a provisional authority from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) given Congress’ lack of time to pass a new franchise – should be binding throughout the Executive Branch.

“Guevarra said that on grounds of equity, the ABS-CBN can continue. Again, this is an opinion expressed by no less than the secretary of justice, whose opinion is binding on the entire executive branch, so this must be extended due respect.”

Guevarra gave his opinion on the franchise issue during Monday’s Senate inquiry called by Poe.

Drilon said he was in favor of doing what was “necessary in order to allow an objective debate on the renewal of the franchise, without the threat of ABS-CBN being closed.”

In fact, even without the concurrent resolution, a provisional authority would still be valid, he said.

‘Man of wisdom’
“That is the view of Secretary Guevarra; that is the view of Speaker Cayetano; and that is the view of Senator Poe as chairman of the committee on public services,” Drilon said.

Poe said that while Puno is a “man of integrity and wisdom,” a lot had happened since the 2003 ruling that he penned.

“And in fact, hundreds of franchises go through both houses of Congress and because of that, the cure of Congress, because sometimes they don’t have enough time to deliberate on it, is to direct the NTC to grant the provisional license,” Poe told ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila.

Poe also said that even without any resolution from Congress, ABS-CBN should continue operating, “even just by precedents of the acts of Congress in recent years.”

Several companies have been given provisional licenses, she pointed out, citing PT&T, Globe, Smart, GMA Network, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and Marine Broadcasting.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

President Rodrigo Duterte administers the oath of office to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) officials in a ceremony at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang Palace on February 26, 2020. Video: Rappler

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

Reporters have finally got the chance to ask President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday whether he would sign a bill granting a new franchise for TV giant ABS-CBN. His response: “I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.”

Duterte, speaking for the first time since his top aide, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, said in a Senate inquiry on Monday that he was displeased with ABS-CBN’s refusal to air a political ad during the 2016 presidential campaign, said he would be put in a “difficult position” if the bill arrived on his desk.

He said he might even ask media to help him out on making a decision. “I will cross the bridge when I am there. Maybe I will call the media to help me out. It is a difficult decision really,” Duterte told reporters following an oath-taking of officials at Malacañang Palace.

READ MORE: The ANC Brief – a threat to press freedom

Duterte nonetheless accepted the apology made by ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak over the non-airing of the ad, which Duterte supporters have used as evidence of the network’s alleged bias against the president.

ABS-CBN has said ad limits in the final stretch of the 2016 campaign prevented the airing of the ad. The ad was in response to an attack ad paid for by Duterte’s arch-critic, then senator Antonio Trillanes IV, featuring children reacting to clips of Duterte uttering bad language.

Duterte did not accept a P2.6-million refund from ABS-CBN. On Wednesday, he said ABS-CBN could give it to a “charitable institution of their choice”.

The president also claimed that he had no hand in the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor-General Jose Calida before the Supreme Court, in which the top government lawyer accused ABS-CBN of violating the terms and conditions of its 25-year franchise, which expires on March 30.

‘Healthy distance’
“I kept a healthy distance from it…they are now deliberating in Congress: the lower house (House of Representatives) and the Senate. There is a plan that they will pass a joint resolution. But fundamentally really the decision is with the House, not so much in the Senate, because the constitution says all of these things must originate from the lower house,” Duterte said.

“I leave it to Congress,” he added.

The tussle over the ABS-CBN franchise is widely viewed as a press freedom issue. Duterte last year vowed to block the network’s franchise and accused it of serving as a mouthpiece for the opposition and the “oligarchs”.

The government previously sued Rappler, a news website critical of Duterte, for tax evasion and violating the constitutional ban on foreign ownership in mass media, and barred Rappler reporters from covering government events.

Calida’s petition does not cite the non-airing of the ad. It claims that ABS-CBN went around the foreign ownership ban by accepting investments from foreigners through investment instruments known as Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs). It also claimed that ABS-CBN illegally charged subscribers to a digital movie channel and illegally acquired a franchise for a mobile phone service.

ABS-CBN has denied any wrongdoing, and told the Supreme Court on Monday that it had the necessary licences from the National Telecommunications Commission.

Also on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said ABS-CBN did not violate the law in issuing PDRs, which entitles holders only to dividends and not ownership.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue also said the TV network did not owe any taxes to the government, refuting claims by Duterte supporters on social media that ABS-CBN was cheating on its tax payments.

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

• Rappler challenges president’s ‘media powers’
• Other ABS-CBN reports

Jamela Alindogan reports on journalists in the Philippines protesting and demanding better protection of press freedoms. Video: Al Jazeera

By Neil Joshua N. Servallos in Manila

The University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, which has the biggest and oldest journalism school, has released a statement supporting television broadcaster ABS-CBN, adding its voice to the growing clamour against a petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor-General to shut down the country’s largest media network.

“We are one with [ABS-CBN] in their commitment to continue their service to the Filipino people and the global community,” UST said in the statement posted on the university’s social media accounts.

“ABS-CBN has won numerous awards for its entertainment, news, and public service programs at the USTv Students’ Choice Awards. We offer our prayers for the network to be able to renew its franchise,” it said.

READ MORE: Campus publications call for autonomy, protection of press freedom

UST journalism faculty members have released a statement calling Solicitor-General Jose Calida’s petition “a deadly virus inflicted upon citizens, with pandemic consequences on the people’s right to know”.

“The country is better off with ABS-CBN than without it. Our democracy needs a press that is free from the pressures wantonly exerted by those in power,” the statement read.

Calida filed a quo warranto petition on February 10 in a bid to revoke the ABS-CBN franchise a month before its expiration, claiming the network was engaging in highly abusive practices.

Calida faulted the TV network for getting money from foreign investors and circumventing the ban on foreign ownership of mass media, illegally charging subscribers to a digital channel, and illegally transferring the franchise of mobile unit ABS-CBN Convergence Inc.

The UST journalism faculty urged the House of Representatives and the Senate to ignore Calida’s quo warranto petition and to approve ABS-CBN’s franchise application “post-haste”.

Neil Joshua N. Servallos is a reporter with The Varsitarian. The Journalism programme in the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines, collaborates with the Pacific Media Centre.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Lopez Katigbak has broken his silence amid the controversy over renewal of the Philippine TV giant’s broadcast franchise, which expires in one month.

Katigbak, in a video posted on the ABS-CBN News site and aired over flagship newscast TV Patrol on Thursday, vowed to follow the process of renewing the network’s licence and answer all allegations raised by Solicitor-General Jose Calida in a quo warranto petition filed with the Supreme Court last week.

“Wala po kaming nakikitang dahilan para hindi magtuloy ang paglilingkod ng ating ABS-CBN. Gayun pa man, kami ay handang sumunod sa anumang proseso na dapat pagdaanan ayon sa batas,” said Katigbak, president of ABS-CBN since 2016.

[We don’t see any reason to stop the service of our ABS-CBN. Nonetheless, we are willing to go through whatever process is required by law.]

READ MORE: Background to the ABS-CBN television saga

Calida accused ABS-CBN of circumventing the constitutional ban on foreign ownership, pointing to ABS-CBN having issued Philippine Depositary Receipts to foreign investors, illegally charging subscribers to a digital movie channel, and illegally operating a mobile service.

ABS-CBN has denied any wrongdoing, and legal experts have said that the supposed “highly abusive practices” of the TV network were not enough grounds to shut down the country’s largest television network and should be raised instead before regulatory agencies or lower courts, not the Supreme Court.

Katigbak also thanked individuals and groups that had expressed support for ABS-CBN.

“Ang mga pahayag ninyo ay nagbibigay sa amin ng tibay ng loob at lakas, lalong lalo na sa oras ng matinding pagsubok [Your statements give us courage and strength, especially in these trying times],” he said.

Expiry means shutdown
Also on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned that ABS-CBN would have to shut down when its 25-year franchise, under Republic Act 7966, expires on March 30, 2020.

ABS-CBN’s Carlo Katigbak speaking on TV Patrol [In Tagalog].

Drilon told ABS-CBN News reporter Karen Davila that pronouncements by some lawmakers that ABS-CBN would be allowed to operate on a temporary license until the end of the current session of Congress, as legislators deliberate on the franchise extension, were mere theories.

“There are Supreme Court decisions that say that the National Telecommunication Commission cannot issue an operating permit without a franchise being granted to the licensee. That has been settled by the Supreme Court. Therefore on April 1, if there is no extension of the franchise, tapos na [it’s finished],” he said.

Drilon said a resolution of both houses, which he proposed earlier this week, was needed to temporarily extend the franchise, adding “I do not want to risk the livelihood of 11,000 ABS-CBN employees on a theory that ABS-CBN and its 11,000 workers can continue after March 30 without a franchise.”

Presidential signature needed
But it must be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte, who had vowed to block a new franchise for ABS-CBN, he said.

“Let me make it very clear, once enacted our joint resolution has the effect and force of a law and it must be approved by the president,” he said.

On Friday, the Malacañang Palace appeared to backtrack on Duterte’s previous statements against ABS-CBN and told Congress to do its job.

“You know, the president made utterances against ABS-CBN. He made certain statements like, ‘I’ll shut down.’ But hindi naman literally iyon e [It’s not literal]. He wants to shut down the fraudulent practices of your network,” Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo told ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila.

“Why does the speaker (House Speaker Alan Cayetano) have to take a cue from Malacañang? Why do members of Congress have to wait for what the President will say about anything?”

Felipe F. Salvosa is coordinator of the journalism programme at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

The Philippines top state lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the country’s key television broadcaster with “guns blazing” but he ought to be devoting more effort on governance, says Rappler co-founder and managing editor Glenda M. Gloria.

Gloria, who has been announced as a keynote speaker for the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) in Auckland later this year, made the criticism in her latest Beyond the Spin column.

Rappler and the top network ABS-CBN, which has 11,000 employees with their jobs on the line, have been under constant attack by President Rodrigo Duterte during his presidency.

READ MORE: ACMC Change, Adaptation and Innovation: Media, Communication and Culture conference

In an article entitled “Calida’s guns”, Gloria said Solicitor-General Jose Calida had filed a shock petition against the broadcaster before the Supreme Court, asking the justices to void the 25-year franchise of ABS-CBN which is due to expire on March 30.

“We should all look at this for what it simply is: a two-pronged attack to bring down ABS-CBN through judicial action and legislative fiat, whichever would come first,” she wrote.

Various bills for its renewal are pending and up for debate before the expiry date in the House of Representatives, which has the sole mandate to issue franchises.

Protests by supporters of the popular TV network and media freedom advocates and journalists have been widespread against the action by the Duterte government.

Noting that Calida was the fourth highest paid public official in the Philippines, Gloria wrote: “Now if only Calida’s efficiency, doggedness, and surgical precision were applied to governance – the kind that calms a nation in the face of the coronavirus, the type that acts upon evacuees’ woes after the Taal volcano eruption, or simply one that tries to end our traffic nightmare.”

‘Unprecedented backlog’
She also noted that Calida’s office had “an unprecedented one million cases in backlog” in 2017.

On Monday, Calida also sought a gag order against the network.

Gloria will be a keynote speaker at the ACMC “Change, adaption and innovation” conference hosted by Auckland University of Technology on November 26-28.

She took up journalism during the Marcos dictatorship years after graduating from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

“Revolutions and transitions have shaped her career and temperament as a journalist,” says the Rappler website. Rappler, one of the most innovative media companies, is also a champion of a free press and has often clashed with Duterte.

Gloria has worked for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Manila Times, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and for international news agencies.

In the closing period of the administration of former President Joseph Estrada, she co-founded Newsbreak, which started as a newsweekly.

Conflict books
From 2008 to January 2011, she managed ANC, the ABS-CBN news channel, as its chief operating officer.

A Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University in 2018, she is the author of Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao (with Marites Dañguilan-Vitug), a groundbreaking book on the conflict in Mindanao that won the National Book Award.

In 2011, she wrote The Enemy Within: An Inside Story on Military Corruption, with Aries Rufo and Gemma Bagayaua-Mendoza.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

Solicitor-General Jose Calida asked the Supreme Court today to issue a gag order against ABS-CBN, claiming the Philippines’ largest television network was engaging in “propaganda” to sway the justices in the quo warranto case seeking to void its franchise.

Calida filed the “very urgent” motion a week after bringing ABS-CBN to the High Court, accusing the Lopez-led TV network of employing “highly abusive” practices and that its franchise should be forfeited.

The Solicitor-General cited a background video about the quo warranto case by senior reporter Christian Esguerra, and commentaries on the ABS-CBN News website.

READ MORE: Will media freedom survive in the Philippines?

Under the sub judice rule, courts restrict discussions on the merits of pending cases, to avoid prejudgment and influence on the court that could lead to a miscarriage of justice.

Violators may be liable for indirect contempt, based on the Rules of Court.

But there has to be “clear and present danger,” meaning “the evil consequence of the comment must be ‘extremely serious and the degree of imminence extremely high’ before an utterance can be punished,” Associate Justice Noel Tijam wrote in a 2018 decision on a gag order in the case of the quo warranto petition that led to the ousting of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, which Calida also initiated.

“Freedom of speech should not be impaired through the exercise of the power of contempt of court unless there is no doubt that the utterances in question make a serious and imminent threat to the administration of justice. It must constitute an imminent, not merely a likely, threat,” Tijam’s decision stated.

Risk of contempt
Reacting to Calida’s gag order petition, Senator Panfilo Lacson said: “I hope the Supreme Court will not include the Senate or any of its committees in the gag order, if issued as petitioned by the Solicitor-General, in deference to the settled jurisprudence that tackled similar issues in the past.”

“What may be covered, though, are the resource persons who will be invited to shed light on this instant case involving the franchise of ABS-CBN as they are not exempt from the sub judice rule, which covers litigants and witnesses, members of the bar and the public in general,” he said in a statement.

“Thus, they may run the risk of being cited for contempt once they express their opinions that might pose a clear and present danger in the administration of justice by directly influencing the members of the Court in rendering their votes to resolve the pending petition for quo warranto,” Lacson said.

Senator Grace Poe, who was set to conduct an inquiry into the ABS-CBN franchise, said the hearing would push through “according to our constitutional mandate.”

“It is up to the Supreme Court to act on that motion under existing laws and jurisprudence where it recognised the jurisdiction of its co-equal branch,” she said in a statement.

Calida’s quo warranto petition has earned condemnation from media workers, academics and other stakeholders, many of them describing it as an attack on press freedom.

President Rodrigo Duterte had vowed to block the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, which expires at the end of March 2020.

There are moves in the Senate and House of Representatives to give ABS-CBN a temporary licence to allow it to operate while lawmakers discuss the renewal of its franchise. Some 11,000 jobs are at stake.

The High Court gave ABS-CBN 10 days to comment on Calida’s petition.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

President Rodrigo Duterte takes legal action to shut down the biggest broadcaster in the Philippines in what is being described as the most severe attack on media freedom in the country. Video: Al Jazeera

Pacific Media Watch

More than 500 journalists have gathered to protest threats to the survival of the largest television network in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, amid ambiguous statements by politicians regarding the broadcasters’ franchise renewal.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists Philippines (NUJP), condemns the blockade of the ABS-CBN franchise renewal and re-iterates the need for a review bill to pass through Congress.

At the Red Friday protest on Valentines Day in Quezon City, Metro Manila, more than 500 people gathered to fight the government attempt to close ABS-CBN.

READ MORE: Will media freedom survive in the Philippines?

The protest was organised by the NUJP, Altermidya Network, the Concerned Artists of the Philippines and Defend Jobs Philippines, as well as ABS-CBN employees and supporters.

The same day, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano questioned the urgency to hold congressional hearings to discuss CBS-ABN’s franchise renewal which is set to expire on March 30.

Answering journalists, Cayetano said: “If I want to grandstand, I will call for a hearing. But is it the right timing?

“Are we all in the right frame of mind or are we still hot-headed? This is not that urgent. Why? Because ABS-CBN can operate until March 2022.”

25-year franchise
ABS-CBN secured its franchise for 25 years under Republic Act 7966, which came into effect on March 30, 1995. The company currently operates free TV Channel 2 and radio DZMM and employs 6730 regular employees, 900 non-regular workers, and more than 3325 other talent in its operations.

Senate President, Vicente Sotto, and House legislative franchise committee vice-chairperson, Isabela Representative Tonypet Albano, have previously reiterated that the broadcasting company can operate until 2022, when the 18th Congress ends, as long as there are a pending bills.

Despite these claims, Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte has stated he plans to reject the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN. On December 3, 2019, Duterte said that ABS-CBN would definitely be “out” in 2020.

ABS-CBN has faced an ongoing struggle for franchise renewal since Duterte’s election in May 2016. Two years later, in November 2018 Duterte publicly criticised ABS-CBN for not airing his campaign advertisements during the 2016 election, calling out ABS-CBN’s chairman emeritus Gabby Lopez a “thief”.

Efforts to shut the broadcasting company are being pursued by Solicitor-General Jose Calida who filed a petition against ABS-CBN on February 10, 2020. Calida accuses ABS-CBN of unlawfully exercising its franchise.

NUJP has an ongoing online petition urging authorities to respect press freedom and grant the franchise renewal. Access the petition here.

The IFJ said: “The ongoing efforts by the Duterte government and the Solicitor-General to block the ABS-CBN franchise renewal are a disgraceful attack on media in the Philippines with the intent to destabilise and threaten independent media reporting.

“Any review of broadcasting franchises should be conducted in an open and transparent manner with inputs from all parties and, particularly, the media itself. The IFJ stands in solidarity with its affiliate NUJP as well as press freedom advocates globally who strongly support the ABC-CBN franchise renewal.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila

New York-based Human Rights Watch has led a barrage of condemnation against the Duterte government’s “assault on media freedom” by filing a court petition to void the franchise of ABS-CBN, the largest television network in the Philippines.

The petition for quo warranto accuses ABS-CBN of skirting the ban on foreign ownership of mass media and illegally operating a digital for-pay channel and a subsidiary for mobile and digital TV platforms. The publicly listed company denies the allegations.

Shares in ABS-CBN fell 1.76 percent to 16.70 pesos each following news of the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor-General Jose Calida, who campaigned for President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 election.

READ MORE: Duterte top state lawyer asks Supreme Court to shut ‘abusive’ media network

HRW said in a statement that the Philippine Congress should thwart the Duterte government’s “misuse” of regulatory powers, adding that Calida’s action could prevent the renewal of ABS-CBN’s 25-year franchise, which expires on March 30.

“Philippine legislators have a responsibility to uphold media freedom and resist administration efforts to pressure news outlets to toe the government’s line,” said HRW Philippines researcher Carlos Conde.

“President Duterte’s administration should cease its politically motivated legal actions against the network.”

HRW also said the Philippines licence renewal process allowed Congress to put “inappropriate pressure” on broadcast networks.

‘All-out assault’
“The administration’s attempt to cancel ABS-CBN’s franchise or deny its extension is not just an attack on a single network, but an all-out assault on media freedom,” Conde said.

“Complaints against broadcasters should be addressed in the proper forum, such as the National Telecommunications Commission.”

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) also denounced the government’s move, citing ABS-CBN as a “cornerstone of Philippine democracy and the free press for its independent and critical reportage and massive following in the country and abroad”.

“The constitutional violation and other legal infractions raised by the Solicitor-General in his quo warranto petition before the Supreme Court have been denied by ABS-CBN and questioned by some members of the legislature, which has exclusive rights to grant such franchises,” FOCAP said.

“These moves politically harass and threaten a pillar of the media industry that employs thousands of Filipinos and has played a crucial part in helping fight official corruption and abuse for decades.

“We call on Congress to act independently. We call on our Supreme Court Justices to side with the people’s right to truthful and independent news, the Constitution and democracy. We call on our media colleagues to close ranks in this perilous time,” FOCAP said.

The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication said Calida’s action was “another blatant attack on the freedom of the press”.

Silencing media voices
“In filing a ‘quo warranto’ against ABS-CBN, the current administration demonstrates the lengths that they will go to silence critical media voices,” it said in a statement.

“It has been 34 years since we won back our right to information and a free press through the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

“However, government actions such as these show us the volatility of this hard-won freedom, the need to remain vigilant so as to not allow history to repeat itself,” it said.

“As we have seen in the recent past, multiple tactics have been used to attack the media—from the legal harassment of ABS-CBN and Rappler to the use of spurious data and fake news against media institutions like VERA Files and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism.”

Opposition senator Francis Pangilinan criticised the Duterte government for “training its guns” on critics amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Another opposition lawmaker, Risa Hontiveros, argued that a quo warranto petition wouldn’t succeed.

“The provision attacks a corporation that was not legally incorporated. ABS-CBN, is, of course, legally incorporated,” she said.

‘Vindictive move’
“I see the Solicitor-General’s quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN as an attack on the free press and a vindictive move against critical journalism,” she added.

The leader of the Senate minority, Franklin Drilon, cast doubt on Calida’s motivation, noting that the petition, which would require weeks – if not months – to resolve, would become useless when ABS-CBN’s franchise expired next month.

“If between now and March, Congress decides to hear the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN — all these issues raised by SolGen Calida in his quo warranto petition can be taken up during the hearing,” Drilon said.

Felipe F. Salvosa II is coordinator of the Journalism Programme in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz