freedom of media in the philippines essay

Philippine journalists’ perspectives on press freedom: The impact of international media campaigns

• Rachel Khan University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City

Legally, press freedom in the Philippines is protected by the 1987 Constitution. However, media laws in the country, especially those referring to freedom of the expression and the press, tend to be inconsistent and volatile. In fact, the country continues to be low ranking in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. In response to attacks on press freedom, international media organisations have stepped up to defend and support the Philippine press. Drawing from data gathered through 20 semi-structured indepth interviews with Filipino journalists, this study sought to examine the effect of the government hostility against media on journalists’ perception of press freedom and their attitude towards interventions from international media organisations and coalitions. More specifically, it looks at the impact (or lack thereof) of global media coalitions and foreign media organisations in the country. Findings show that local media are appreciative of the support given by international media organisations in promoting media freedom in the country. However, journalists also noted that when only one segment of the media is targeted, it can lead to divisiveness among local media practitioners.

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Why does press freedom matter? Rappler journalists, community answer

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Why does press freedom matter?

This year’s #WorldPressFreedomDay, held every May 3, took the theme “Information as a Public Good.” It was an affirmation of the importance of information in the age of disinformation and within a damaged information ecosystem.  (READ: 6 things you can do to support press freedom in the Philippines )

In the Philippines, press freedom has suffered more during the coronavirus pandemic. The country dropped two places this year in the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, now ranking 138th out of 180 countries.

RSF cited the continued attacks of the administration on the media and the government-backed shutdown of the country’s largest broadcaster, ABS-CBN. On top of this, RSF also cited the online harassment and red-tagging of journalists and perceived enemies of the Duterte administration.

For journalists, the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day is a call to remember why journalism must persist despite the growing risks and dangers of the profession.

This year, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was awarded the 2021 UNESCO Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Laureate for her “unerring fight for freedom of expression.”

What press freedom means

To remember the important work journalists do to uphold democracy, several Rappler multimedia reporters, Rappler+ members, and Movers shared their insights on why they believe in press freedom. 

Having covered security and crime, multimedia reporter Rambo Talabong shared the harrowing realities faced by targets of the administration.

“Of the hundreds [of stories] published with my name, most of them carry the words ‘killed,’ ‘shot down,’ ‘gunned down,’ and ‘fought back,’” said Talabong.

Now covering the House of Representatives and local governments, Talabong said journalism must document the stories of today to help communities remember and learn from these occurrences.

“We are not here to tell stories to save, but to tell stories to remember. We tell them so that we do not forget that the killings, the injustice, the corruption, and the impunity continue. And that they should not. We hope they do not,” he added.

With attacks and harassment being done to silence media who are critical of the administration, Rappler journalist Mara Cepeda said that this worst time is also the best time to be a journalist.

“It doesn’t get any easier really. But in the face of authoritarian regimes out to silent us, we journalists must push on – to hold our leaders accountable and to make space for the voices that should be heard,” Cepeda said. 

Support for independent media

The celebration of world press freedom also came as a reminder to government institutions around the world to uphold their commitment to ensure a free press in their respective countries. 

Rappler+ member and Project Coordinator of Foundation for Media Alternatives Bernice Soriano said that it was important and crucial for Filipinos to support independent media so journalists are free to report on what is happening even if it criticizes the government or other institutions.

“This is crucial because it promotes an informed citizenry by providing access to information to everyone. Also being critical is not antagonization- it actually paves the way for improvement and progress, by learning from mistakes,” Soriano said.

“Press freedom is needed for democracy, as it is one of its pillars. Without this the citizens will not be informed on actual happenings and events, whether good or bad, and cannot make informed, independent choices,” she added.

Another Rappler+ member Jojo Geronimo echoed this, citing how the media should also defend itself to remain independent and vigilant in the face of attacks and harassment. 

“In this ‘alternative reality’ falsehood passes as truth; and exaggeration and half-truths coalesce in a network of coordinated disinformation. The state can use this weapon, but corporations, as ‘persons’ can claim individual rights,” Geronimo added.

How can data journalism drive action?

Standing firm with the truth

As disinformation continues to spread online, Rappler Mover Jam Marciano emphasized how the fight for press freedom was not only a fight for journalists, but also for every Filipino.

“As journalists, it is our right to report stories and make the government accountable. This is not just about writing and reporting, but our job is to help in solving the social injustices we are facing….Don’t be afraid to speak up. Use your voice because it is your right. Let’s continue fighting for press freedom,” Marciano said. 

Another Mover, French Bandong talked of the need to stand firm when writing stories.

As a campus journalist, he narrated his experience back when he was in seventh grade when he was called out in front of the whole school because he wrote an opinion piece confronting school issues.

“That day, I realized I had a voice – a voice that opts to speak and insists to be heard,” he said. 

As he looked back into that incident, he added this: “Dear 13 year-old me, that was traumatic but I am so proud of you for being so brave. Now, we see the importance of campus journalists in shedding greater light on marginal voice, especially in times of injustice and impunity.” 

Rappler has a line-up of activities for the entire month of May to commemorate the importance of press freedom. This includes sessions of MovePH’s fact-checking webinar series on May 21 and a special session on May 28. To know more about this, follow MovePH on Facebook . – Rappler.com 

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Press Freedom in the Philippines: A Historical Survey

This paper wishes to explore press freedom in the Philippines with a survey through the pre-colonial to the present day, looking at how press freedom developed as an idea, how it is practiced, how is threatened - not only by the state or external private actors, but within institutions and media collectives as well, and how society, politics and the economy lead to inhibitions and censorship (whether by state, media institutions or journalists themselves) in media.

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In the Philippines, free press won’t go down without a fight

• Deep Read ( 4 Min. )
• By Mark Saludes Contributor

July 25, 2022 | MANILA, Philippines

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist, with reporters regularly enduring verbal abuse, online attacks, libel charges, and physical harassment. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines reports that at least 23 journalists have been killed since 2016.

Experts say the new administration could be worse. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sarah Duterte both come from political families that are hostile toward journalists. A few days after Mr. Marcos assumed the presidency on June 30, the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa for cyber libel, marking the latest in a series of blows to the acclaimed journalist, who now faces nearly seven years in prison.

Why We Wrote This

The Philippine government has a history of targeting adversarial journalists. Until press freedom is fully protected, experts say it’s the public that loses out.

In courts and newsrooms across the country, journalists such as Ms. Ressa are fighting for their right to work freely. Danilo Arao, an associate professor journalism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, says the magnitude of harassment and intimidation is producing a “chilling effect” and hinders the Philippine press from doing its job.

“If this continues, you’ll end up with docile and servile people who favor political power, rather than adversarial journalists,” he says.

Freedom of press is guaranteed by the Philippines’ Constitution. Yet the island nation has become one of the most dangerous places in the world to exercise that right.

Journalists endured verbal abuse, online attacks, libel charges, and physical harassment for years under the strongman rule of Rodrigo Duterte. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines reports that at least 23 journalists have been killed since 2016, and many expect the new administration will be worse. 

Both President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the famous dictator, and Vice President Sarah Duterte, daughter of Mr. Duterte, come from political families that are openly hostile toward journalists. It remains to be seen whether they will build on their parents’ legacies of cracking down on press freedom, but the past few weeks haven’t been encouraging. A few days after Mr. Marcos assumed the presidency on June 30, the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa for cyber libel, marking the latest in a series of blows to the acclaimed journalist and her embattled publication Rappler. She now faces nearly seven years in prison.

It’s one thing to enshrine a freedom in the constitution – it’s another to ensure that freedom in practice. In courts and newsrooms across the country, journalists are fighting for their right to work freely. Still, experts worry about how the press would fare under six more years of persecution, and the impact this all has on Philippine democracy.

Danilo Arao, an associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, says the magnitude of harassment and intimidation is producing a “chilling effect” and hinders the Philippine press from “performing the highest normative standards of journalism.” 

Defending press freedom in court

Ms. Ressa, who is also a U.S. citizen, is facing seven active cases before the Philippine courts, all filed during the time of Mr. Duterte. 

She says she hasn’t given up “hope that these next six years will be slightly better,” because the Marcoses “are more sophisticated [than the Dutertes] in some ways.” But she’s ready to fight if things get worse. Despite losing her recent appeal against the cyber libel conviction, Ms. Ressa’s legal team considers the ruling an opportunity for the Supreme Court to examine the constitutionality of cyber libel and the continuing criminalization of libel. 

In a statement , Ms. Ressa’s lawyer Amal Clooney said she hopes the high court will “restore the country’s constitutional commitment to freedom of speech. And I hope that the new Marcos administration will show the world that it is strong enough to withstand scrutiny and allow a free press.”

Ms. Ressa says the string of cases against Rappler and the onslaught of attacks against the Philippine media aimed to “make us voluntarily stay quiet, to voluntarily give up our rights.” 

“We’re not going to do that in Rappler. I’ve said this repeatedly over the last six years – and apparently, for another six years: We’re not going to go away,” she says.

Alternative news site Bulatlat.com, one of 27 websites that were blocked by the National Telecommunications Commission during Mr. Duterte’s final weeks in office, has also brought the battle to the courts.

“The memorandum order clearly violates our constitutional freedoms of the press, speech, and expression,” says Ronalyn Olea, managing editor of Bulatlat.com. “It does not just constitute censorship; it also deprived us of due process of law.” 

The site is still blocked, but Ms. Olea hopes the court will rule “in favor of press freedom and the public’s right to information” at a preliminary injunction set for Aug. 2.

In peril: public’s right to know

News organizations in the Philippines face a plethora of threats that make it difficult to deliver information to the public. Several outlets including CNN Philippines and Rappler have been targets of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, a form of internet censorship in which attackers crash a website for hours or days by flooding it with traffic. 

Last year, DDoS attacks on Bulatlat.com and Altermidya.net – another alternative news site blocked in June by the National Telecommunications Commission – were traced to an IP address assigned to the Philippine army. No one has been held accountable.

Experts say alternative and community publications, which are small and scattered in nature, are especially vulnerable to “red-tagging,” in which authorities open up specific reporters or publications to harassment by linking them to communist or rebel groups. Rhea Padilla, national coordinator of Alternative Media Network, says the government has tagged journalists “for publishing stories that depict the people’s struggle and stimulate critical public discourse.”

Jonathan de Santos, president of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, calls these attacks “a disservice to the Filipino people.”

“They want people to become blinded followers,” he says.

Search for solidarity

Over the past six years, there is a growing solidarity among journalists amid the intensifying attack on press freedom. Mr. de Santos says many individual journalists, especially the young ones, “are setting aside competition to strengthen the fight against disinformation and confront all kinds of attacks on press freedom.” 

“However, we still have to translate this kind of solidarity among newsrooms and media organizations. We need to push back as one industry,” he says. 

For Ms. Ressa, winning the war against media repression requires winning the trust and confidence of the Filipino public, who shaped the foundation of press freedom in the country. 

When Ferdinand Marcos Sr. imposed martial law in 1972, he immediately ordered the military to seize major media outlets’ assets. The closure of trusted news outlets and murder of adversarial journalists eventually gave birth to the “mosquito press,” a collective name for alternative publications that criticized the dictatorship. They were said to be “small, but have a stinging bite.” Later, the 1986 People Power Revolt that ousted the senior Mr. Marcos also helped restore press freedom, enshrining the right in the 1987 constitution. It’s a history that Ms. Ressa hopes Filipino people will remember going into this new era.

“The point is, if only one stands up, it’s easy to slap them down. But if a thousand stand up, then it becomes harder. So it’s not just journalists you have to turn to. It is also Filipinos,” she says. “This is a time when we have to stand up for our rights.”

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Reflecting on the importance of press freedom

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day — a timely opportunity for reflection on the crucial importance of media freedoms and the vital role of journalists in our democracies.

This year, Uruguay is hosting the World Press Freedom Conference, under the theme “Journalism Under Digital Siege,” to underscore impacts of surveillance, threats, and safety of journalists on digital platforms and spaces.

Media freedom is a cornerstone of all democratic societies and essential to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. A free media is essential to hold elected leaders to account. The decision by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to award two brave journalists from the Philippines and from Russia also underlines the relevance of an independent media and press freedom for peace and stability. Yet, around the world, the ability of citizens to speak truth to power is under attack.

The readiness of malign actors, including some states, to suppress media freedom and weaponize misinformation and disinformation, and to use digital tools to manipulate, harass, and suppress citizens should be a source of concern for all. Russian efforts to spread falsehoods, intimidate and suppress free media, restrict their own citizens’ access to information, and subvert Ukrainian sovereignty stands out in this regard.

A brief survey of the global landscape illustrates the urgency for action. The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded at least 27 journalists killed over their work in 2021 alone, including two in the Philippines.

Authoritarian regimes have redoubled efforts to control narratives, as well as circumvent norms and institutions meant to uphold fundamental liberties.

Some have seized on crises like the COVID-19 pandemic to promote hatred and division, undermining trust in public institutions including the media. The escalation of gender-based violence and harassment of women journalists are of particular concern.

Much of this occurs in the digital domain, where malign actors have leveraged social media tools to flood feeds and inboxes with misinformation and disinformation, to undermine public confidence in democratic institutions, and to subvert democratic processes.

Rights to free speech and free expression, too, are under pressure. In many countries, government efforts to control and censor information deny citizens the ability to inform themselves, and to fully participate in democratic decision-making.

The Philippines is no stranger to the misinformation and disinformation phenomena. Since as early as 2010, academics and experts have been tracking its explosive growth in the Philippines. That World Press Freedom Day should fall just six days before millions of Filipinos will go to the polls is auspicious, and provides opportunity for reflection.

In a country where most citizens access news via digital platforms, the impact of false and manipulated information is amplified. In addition, reduced choice in sources of information, reliance on social media platforms as a primary vehicle for sharing of information, deliberate attacks on the credibility of media institutions, intimidation and censorship of independent media voices, and attacks on the credibility of essential government and democratic institutions have been observed and are being criticized.

The 2022 elections are unprecedented as they take place during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time where there is an even greater need to protect and promote the crucial role of independent media. In these exceptional times, their work serves to keep Filipinos worldwide informed, to amplify factual information and to counter false or misleading narratives.

Despite these challenges, growing civic awareness and the vibrant and dynamic civil society found across the Philippines offer hope. The emergence of independent fact-checking organizations, of civic education groups, the tireless and courageous work of human rights defenders, and the devoted efforts of free media and investigative journalists have done much to help reinforce and protect democracy in the Philippines.

The international community stands with Filipinos in this effort. Through forums like the Media Freedom Coalition and the Freedom Online Coalition, the G7, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, efforts to support media freedom, reinforce democracy, combat misinformation and disinformation, and support human rights online are being pursued, in close partnership with government, media networks, advocacy groups, nongovernment organizations, academia, and the private sector. These efforts contribute help to improve fact-checking, build civic literacy, build capacity of media and democratic institutions, combat corruption, enhance transparency, and ensure accountability.

The struggle to protect democracy and fundamental rights and freedoms online and offline requires constant vigilance and perseverance. The cost of complacency is the subversion of a democratic way of life.

As the Philippines transitions into a new administration, we hope to see these challenges addressed and for a renewed commitment to defending and protecting press freedom in the country in the coming years.

On this World Press Freedom Day, we reconfirm our commitment to help protect a vibrant and independent media. We look forward to peaceful, truthful, and healthy conduct of the elections, and we extend our fondest wishes to the Filipino people as they participate in this important democratic exercise.

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This article was jointly signed by the ambassadors of Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines, and the chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of the Netherlands.

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A 'Fraught Time' For Press Freedom In The Philippines

Sheila S. Coronel

College students protest to defend press freedom in Manila on Wednesday, after the government cracked down on Rappler, an independent online news site. Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

College students protest to defend press freedom in Manila on Wednesday, after the government cracked down on Rappler, an independent online news site.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte does not like the press. Stung by critical media reporting, he has in the past months called some of the country's largest media organizations "bullshit," "garbage," "son of a bitch." Journalists, he said, have no shame. They are corrupt fabulists and hypocrites who "pretend to be the moral torch of the country."

But Duterte does not just get mad; he gets even. This week, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the corporate registration of Rappler , an online media startup that has reported aggressively on Duterte's troll army and police abuses in the government's war on drugs. If the order is confirmed by an appeals court, the company may have to shut down.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, shown here on Dec. 20 at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the military, became president as the Philippine media were losing prestige and market power. Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, shown here on Dec. 20 at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the military, became president as the Philippine media were losing prestige and market power.

Threatening as this crackdown is, it's only one arm of a pincer-like assault on the press. Duterte is drawing from the Modern Autocrat's Field Guide to Information Control. The aim is complete encirclement so as to drown out critical and independent voices. Like Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Recip Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary's Viktor Orban, he has launched a two-pronged attack.

One prong is media muzzling through government regulation. In Russia, Turkey and Hungary, autocratic leaders have shut down critical news outlets or transferred their ownership to friendly proprietors. In all these countries, government regulators have hounded recalcitrant media owners with spurious allegations like tax evasion and failure to obtain licenses.

More insidiously, populist leaders have tried to de-legitimize independent and critical media by ridiculing their editorial standards and their claims to a moral high ground. The press, said Dutere , "throw[s] garbage at us ... [but] How about you? Are you also clean?"

Demonization by government — something President Trump also deploys against media outlets he dislikes — is just one tactic. The other is letting loose an army of trolls , bloggers on the state's payroll , propagandists and paid hacks who ensure the strongman's attacks against the press are amplified in newspaper columns and on the airwaves, on social media and fake news sites.

In 1972, when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, he closed down all newspapers and broadcast stations and hauled dozens of journalists to jail. When the presses and broadcast networks reopened, they were all owned by Marcos kin and cronies and were censored by the presidential palace. The flow of information was strictly controlled: There were only three daily newspapers and a limited number of TV and radio stations.

Employees of Rappler, an online news outfit known for its critical reporting on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, continued to work in their office in Manila on Tuesday. The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's corporate registration this week. Aaron Favila/AP hide caption

Employees of Rappler, an online news outfit known for its critical reporting on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, continued to work in their office in Manila on Tuesday. The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's corporate registration this week.

Duterte is an admirer of Marcos, but he is using a 21st century playbook for media control. The strategy is no longer restricting information flows, but flooding the information space with disinformation and propaganda while also attacking legitimate purveyors of the news.

Last year, the president launched blistering assaults against two news organizations that reported allegations he had stashed millions in secret bank accounts. As he turned up the heat, the owners of the Philippine Daily Inquirer , the country's second largest newspaper, announced they would sell the daily to a businessman chummy with the president. Duterte also tightened the screws on the top television network, ABS-CBN, threatening to block the renewal of its franchise and to sue its owners for failing to air campaign ads that he said he had already paid for.

Rappler was investigated supposedly because it violated the ban on foreign media ownership. The pioneering startup issued $1 million in securities, called Philippine depository receipts, to the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic arm of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Other companies, including a giant telecommunications firm and two broadcast networks, have similar arrangements with foreign investors. But only Rappler's registration has been revoked — tellingly, six months after Duterte accused the news site of being U.S.-owned.

During the Marcos era, Filipino journalists and citizens used innovative ways to skirt censorship. There was a robust underground press and above-ground media used allegory and allusion to evade restrictions.

The new media landscape requires new strategies for ensuring that genuine news evades encirclement by poisoned information. More cautious news outlets have taken the path of self-preservation through self-censorship. Rappler, for one, has said it will not stand down, and it has the support of major journalist groups in the Philippines and overseas. In the past, journalists, with the support of outraged citizens, have successfully resisted gagging.

But the Philippine press has never been weaker. Media influence and market power soared after Marcos fell in a 1986 popular uprising. There was a hunger for news and uncensored information and crusading journalists and newspapers were feted for their role in the democracy movement. Before long, powerful families bought newspapers and broadcast networks, using their media clout to advance their interests. Sensationalism ruled in a crowded and competitive media market.

Like elsewhere, technology has disrupted the media business in the Philippines: Revenues have fallen, and audiences have moved online, gravitating toward Facebook, which has become the de facto news source for most Filipinos.

Duterte became president as the media were losing prestige and market power. He attacked the press where it was most vulnerable: His tirades against sensationalist journalists and elitist media owners resonated among many Filipinos.

This is a fraught time for the Philippine press. In the past, journalists and citizens have stood together to defend the right to know. They may do so again, but they need a clear vision, an ark that will see them through the Duterte era's deluge of disinformation.

Sheila S. Coronel (@sheilacoronel) is Director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She co-founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

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• press freedom
• rodrigo duterte

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Freedom Of The Press Is An Old Issue In The Philippines. What Will Marcos Jr. Do Now?

The fatal shooting of Filipino radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa in Manila earlier this month has heightened concerns that the media will remain under attack during the new administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

The 63-year-old host of the “Lapid Fire” show was known for his sharp critiques of both Marcos Jr., the son of a dictator ousted in a pro-democracy uprising in 1986, and the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, who oversaw a deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.

The Philippine police and a presidential task force on media security are still investigating the case but presume that the killing was work-related.

Mabasa, who used the broadcast name Percy Lapid, was the second j ournalist killed since Marcos Jr. took office at the end of June. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, nearly 200 journalists have been killed since the late Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown and went into exile in Hawaii in 1986.

Mabasa’s killing stood out because it took place in the capital of Manila, while most other attacks against journalists have been outside of the capital. Another Filipino radio journalist, Renato “Rey” Blanco, was killed last month in the Negros Oriental province in the central Philippines.

Mabasa was killed when two men on a motorcycle approached the vehicle he was driving and shot him twice in the head on Oct. 3 in suburban Las Pinas City, The Associated Press reported, adding that the attackers escaped.

He was on his way to work, his brother, Roy Mabasa said on social media.

LAST time I saw my brother #PercyLapid alive in person was about 2 weeks ago. Percy was ambushed Monday night while on his way to his #lapidfire studio in Las Piñas. I'll always remember him for his deep faith in God & his undying love for his country. #JusticeForPercyLapid pic.twitter.com/ZWwlW3XgkH — ROY MABASA (@roymabasa) October 5, 2022

Local and international advocacy organizations condemned the killing and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on Philippine authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. The organization also said it had emailed Marcos Jr.’s office and the presidential task force for comment.

Decades of killings, institutional corruption, legal persecution, false labeling as communists or terrorists and disinformation campaigns have rendered the Philippines one of the most hazardous places for media workers. The Southeast Asian nation also is plagued by private armies controlled by powerful clans and weak law enforcement.

One of the worst journalist massacres occurred in 2009 when 32 reporters were killed in Maguindanao province. A decade passed before any of the killers faced justice .

Threats to the Philippine media received global attention when Maria Ressa, CEO of the online Filipino news platform Rappler, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov. She has since been fighting a cyber libel conviction in the Philippines .

Carlos Conde, head Philippines researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that over half of the journalists killed had worked in radio, a medium in which reporting and commentary blur together in efforts to stand out in an industry of competing voices. He said that demonization of the media was just one of the human rights challenges aggravated under Duterte’s term.

“The killing of journalists is not something that occurs in a vacuum,” he said in a phone interview from his hotel room in Geneva, where he attended the 51st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Oct. 5.

Attacks against journalists reflect the poor quality of law enforcement institutions in the country as well as widespread corruption, Conde said.

“It’s been so commonplace and nobody’s shocked anymore – they’ve been inured to the violence,” Conde said.

Meanwhile, social media has facilitated the faster and easier spread of false narratives by government officials, journalists and citizens alike. And so-called red-tagging — the practice of harassing, threatening or blacklisting somebody by accusing them of being a communist or a terrorist — has bled over from the Duterte era.

“Troll armies” in the service of politicians make powerful accusations that become magnified among people who can no longer discern between real and fake news, Conde said. The problem is exacerbated in radio and broadcast journalism because of the selling of air time to the highest bidders, who can say whatever they want.

“This distinction really needs to be highlighted, especially for people outside of the Philippines: the fact is that a lot of this disinformation is put out by those with money to do that. It’s not some organic thing that happens,” Conde said.

He said such disinformation campaigns contributed to Marcos Jr.’s victory over former Vice President Leni Robredo in the presidential election.

The escalation of international attention on the human rights struggle in the Philippines started when Duterte took office in 2016 and began his war on drugs that drew international condemnation for widespread human rights abuses.

“It could be many years before the attitude towards the media changes.” — Journalists’ Union Chair Jonathan de Santos

The new president has vowed that journalists would be protected under his administration, and he reiterated that commitment in a speech after Mabasa’s killing.

“Under my lead, we will support and protect the rights of the media as they efficiently perform their duty. Whatever difficulties we may encounter from this point on, the government will always be ready to lend an ear and to listen to your concerns and to answer all that you may want to know,” he was quoted as saying in the Manila Times .

The signing of the  first national U.N.-Philippines Joint Program for human rights on July 22 also gave activists hope that there would be more accountability to commitments institutionalized in the international arena.

The last episode of Mabasa’s radio show , which aired Sept. 27 on DWBL 1242 AM railed against the institutional red-tagging that had flared up during the outgoing Duterte administration and, according to the host, was continuing with impunity under Marcos Jr. 

The night following Mabasa’s death, the national journalists’ union organized a candlelit rally in Quezon City to pay tribute to the radio journalist and call for government action against his killers. 

“The biggest thing (journalists) can do now is watch out for each other, track the progress and lack of progress of cases, and keep them in the public attention. Another way is to look at the issues that the journalist was talking about and amplify them,” journalists’ union chair Jonathan de Santos said.

Early in the new administration, journalists and local civic organizations welcome Marcos Jr.’s words but express skepticism that change will happen fast.

“It could be many years before the attitude towards the media changes, but t here’s so much more to gain from solidarity within the communities of the public. We have to reach out more to the community – be more relatable, I suppose, to make people feel that they’re heard, that they’re seen,” De Santos said.

The Civil Beat Editorial Board Interview: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa To Speak On ‘Press Freedom Under Fire’

The national journalists’ union has pr o g rams  that support the digital and physical safety of journalists, ranging from a media safety office that tracks harm toward media workers to a fund for orphans of slain voices. The organization is expanding its outreach efforts to provide media ethics training and media literacy events showing why journalism is crucial for the public good and to help promote accountability.

“Being critical doesn’t mean you want the government to fail,” De Santos said.

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State of Press Freedom in the Philippines 2023

By: CMFR Staff

Posted on: May 4, 2023, 8:00 am

Updated on: May 5, 2023, 10:47 am

THIS ANNUAL exercise is rooted in the context of human rights as a manifestation as well as mechanism of democracy. CMFR has always understood the protection of press freedom as a right not only of journalists and members of media but of all citizens. The press provides them with the kind of news and information that empowers them as citizens with the capacity to participate in the public forum, to express their ideas, and finally to choose their leaders wisely as without democrat leaders, democracy falls apart.    

The collection of data related to press freedom has enabled not just CMFR but all its FMFA partners to plan activities, promote media solidarity when journalists are attacked and to identify cases that demonstrate how easily human rights can be trampled upon or trivialized by those in power. 

This year CMFR is presenting two levels of evaluation: data related to the level and the nature of attacks and threats against press freedom based on the consolidated data of CMFR and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Additionally, it presents the map of space and time given to news and public affairs in the Philippine broadcast media. 

The focus on broadcast is in line with the dramatic decline of print as a medium for the various reasons which have been discussed in the past and which we will not take up at this time. 

This year, with hardly any news cheering the event, the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) celebrated its Golden Jubilee, a span of 50 years when broadcast media became a prime source of political information and news for Filipinos. For good or bad, radio and TV sustained operations during periods of dramatic change. Established during the Martial Law regime, it presented itself as a mechanism of self-regulation, while observing the terms of coverage set by government. KBP members were on site to cover People Power events of February 1986, the shaky transition to democracy and EDSA Dos which threw out the actor president Joseph Estrada. 

This report focuses on the present, the state of the press in the country in the first ten months of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

PART ONE  

Attacks and Threats under Marcos Jr. 

Duterte’s personal animosity toward the media was contagious – as other public officials and government agencies followed his example, displaying their own sensitivities or outright hostility toward journalists. CMFR reports each year noted the increase assaults, harassment, banning of journalists from public events, among many others. When Duterte declared his resolve to end the Communist insurgency, law enforcement agencies, through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) initiated more red-tagging of media members and organizations.  Note please that there is no law that bans any ideology or organization for its ideology. Media must update the public on the insurgency; it does not make these reporters insurgents. 

And yet media and individual journalists have become highly vulnerable to such actions by law enforcement agencies. Also targeted are NGOs which publish content related to their advocacy have also been targeted. Uniformed officials  have even raided university libraries for supposedly subversive publications violating learning institutions’ protected academic freedom. Unfortunately, media reports on these without note of these actions being unconstitutional. 

President Marcos Jr. has been amiable toward the press.  His brief speech at the KBP jubilee noted the country’s low ranking at 157 in the global press freedom index. He said he hoped to improve this ranking, and asked the KBP to work with him. His performance as speaker has turned the page from his predecessor. 

But actions speak louder than words. And there has been no real action to prevent the kinds of attacks that made the Duterte regime as dark as it could ever be for the media and for democracy. The improvement shows that at least, attacking journalists and media is no longer government’s number one priority. 

CMFR and NUJP recorded 75 attacks and threats against media workers from June 30, 2022 to April 30, 2023.

40 of the cases of intimidation include 31 cases of red tagging media members or news orgs and 8 cases of surveillance.

10 cases of libel and cyber libel involve two 2 arrests and one 1 conviction.

There were two killings during the period: Rey Blanco on 18 September 2022 and Percy Lapid on 3 October 2022. The latter which featured a highly popular broadcaster who criticized Duterte, Marcos and government actions was followed by the media. Its color elements made it easy to follow. Lapid’s killing involved a procedure featured in a local film where convicts in prison were hired as assassins, the entire scheme plotted with complicity of prison officials. Police investigation identified a ranking official as the alleged mastermind. 

State agents as alleged perpetrators 

Including Lapid’s case,  41 cases involved state agents as alleged perpetrators.: 23 from the national government; 12 from police; and, 6 from local government.

The fact that the category of red-tagging shows up as the highest number of attacks/threats suggests that Marcos has not departed from Duterte’s custom of deploying law-enforcement agents on various fronts. In fact, 75 exceeds the number of attacks/threats in any one year during the term of Duterte. This suggests that Marcos has not pulled away from the pattern showing state agents themselves actively going after the media. 

Another level of media containment

To examine another aspect of control or containment. CMFR scanned the media landscape and mapped the space and time given to news and public affairs – which would show whether the free press provides the kind of news and information that enables and empowers citizens in a democracy. 

These programs ensure that the news media are providing news as a public service, making people aware of what is going on, interpreting current events, helping them think about the issues, engaging them so that their voices can be heard. Most significantly, news should help citizens to think about what they themselves can, including choosing their leaders well. 

The potential for doing this resides more in the broadcast media as print lost its primacy. In the nineties, the growth of the community press expanded democratic space, competing with national newspapers in the provinces. The pandemic however forced many of these enterprises to close down, change owners, move online. One only has to check the number of newspapers in any convenient store to confirm the diminished presence of print in the news market.

Philippine TV Landscape and the Digital Shift

Television arrived in the Philippines in 1952 and into the third millennium had surged as a primary source of entertainment as well as a major source of news and political information.

Even the spread of social media did not dislodge TV’s primacy in the Philippine media landscape. A survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2019 found a TV set in  97.5% of households in the country. As advertising revenues allow free access to TV programs, the medium has dominated the Filipinos’ consumption of news and information with the evening newscast and late night public affairs talk shows. 

Of course, we know that more than anything else, Filipinos turned to television – for entertainment, for diversion, to be in the know about celebrities, connected to the faces and personalities in show business, in noontime variety shows, in day or primetime soap operas. 

But recent developments have caused dramatic changes in national viewing. 

The pandemic and the government’s closure of the major broadcast network, ABS-CBN, caused a tectonic shift in program content and public access to channels.

COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of ABS-CBN 

The two combined to cause drastic changes in country’s TV viewing habits. The stringent measures and extraordinary length of the lockdown forced most people to stay at home – which increased TV viewing time. According to a study by Kantar Media Philippines, the average daily TV viewing time in the country increased 24 percent, from 3 hours and 31 minutes in January 2020 to 4 hours and 22 minutes in May 2020.

As the pandemic persisted, however, public health restrictions forced TV networks to adapt. Even in the area of entertainment, production crews were prevented from shooting on-location.   Countless variety shows which depended on the spontaneous participation of live audiences were forced to suspend their long-standing hold on the lunch hour. 

As the virus threat circumscribed movement, TV networks had to come up with new ways to create content, mainly moving programs to online platforms. Networks such as GMA and TV5 strengthened their own streaming services, while ABS-CBN turned completely digital with their content.

Closing down ABS-CBN 

Meanwhile, in the political realm and quite unrelated to the pandemic, government closed down the largest broadcast network not just in the country but in Southeast Asia. Its channels reached out to Filipino communities abroad. 

The case is well known. The various agencies with whose regulations ABS-CBN was supposed to have been non-compliant declared the network clear of wrongdoing.  Still, the Committee on Public Utility insisted on denying its application to renew its franchise, the last having lasted for fifty years when the network thrived and flourished, establishing its presence in remote areas. The public understanding should appreciate the case simply as abuse of state power.  

ABS-CBN had 143 broadcast stations nationwide; its closure was a major blow to the industry with some ten thousand employees losing jobs. The decision also cut off communities where only ABS-CBN provided free TV channels. 

The government action had another effect. The impact of actual closure darkened newsrooms everywhere as owners of media companies and journalists realized that they could be just as vulnerable to the same kind of attack. TV news became more careful about not crossing lines, afraid of causing offense, and keeping away from sensitive stories. 

New Players in Post Pandemic  

Entry of Manuel Villar as media mogul after Advanced Media Broadcasting System received the ABS-CBN frequency in January 2022. Villar’s wife and son are sitting senators. 

The broadcast network publicly known as ALLTV had a soft launch on July 15, 2022. However, since February 6, 2023, some of its programs were temporarily shelved due to unknown reasons; its 19-hour programming cut down to 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Meanwhile ABS-CBN scrambled to find ways of transmitting their programs. It is a blocktimer in the A2Z channel, owned by religious leader Eddie Villanueva.  A2Z channel NCR and several major cities including Cebu, Davao and Iloilo. It currently has 22 broadcast stations nationwide. ABS-CBN also has an existing blocktime agreement with TV5 owned by media mogul Manny V. Pangilinan.   ABS-CBN shows, including primetime news program TV Patrol , made a free-tv comeback through these deals. ABS-CBN has become a “content creator” according to Laurenti Dyogi, ABS-CBN head of TV production with more entertainment than news. 

Free TV is an important component of the national communication system. It is what provides TV access to the majority of Filipinos who cannot afford cable and internet fees. Free TV serves as the only source of news and entertainment to the masses. Without ABS-CBN, their access options have drastically declined. 

CMFR did a quick scan of the National Telecommunications Commission’s  (NTC)  complete list of operating TV stations nationwide. ABS-CBN shows currently air in 49 broadcast stations nationwide (22 of A2Z and 27 of TV5 including stations of its affiliate Mediascape Inc.). This number is only 34.27 percent of the 143 stations prior to its closure. 

The current biggest channel, GMA-7 has 106 stations currently operating nationwide.  

News and public affairs programming

Actually, the context of this reduction involves the relatively small amount of news that free TV provides Filipinos. KBP members are only required to dedicate at least 30 minutes of their daily programming to news and current affairs.  All free TV channels except GMA7 are members of the KBP. 

The NCR news environment 

There are currently around 32 free TV channels available in NCR (with some available in some cities in the. Only 10 of these carry news and public affairs. CMFR did not count GMA’s simulcast of news in its other digital channels. 

Among the TV channels with wide reach, GMA dedicates 23.3 percent or 280 minutes of their 1200 minutes total daily airtime to news and public affairs programs; TV5, 19.3 percent (220 of 1200 minutes); A2Z, 15.8 percent (180 of 1140). CNN is a news channel (100 percent), while PTV4 is primarily a government news and information channel (59.2 percent). CNN  is an exception as all news channel. Government PTV4 carries government information and news, much of which propaganda. 

SMNI (Quiboloy),  NET 25 are all church or faith-based channels which show more news. CMFR has not scanned the quality of the news these provide. 

ALLTV currently has no news and current affairs in its daily programing.

The Internet Age: TV goes digital 

The KBP compared the 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2022 (post-pandemic) based on Kantar Media studies and found that TV viewership decreased from 94 percent in 2019 to 89 percent in 2022. Online content, however, increased from 59 percent to 76 percent. Radio listening decreased slightly from 59 percent to 58 percent. 

Despite these setbacks, Philippine TV continues to adapt and evolve. With the rise of streaming services and social media, TV networks have been experimenting with new formats and platforms to reach their audiences; finding creative ways to entertain and engage their viewers.

The internet has become a democratic space for all sorts of content catering to a wide variety of audience. To reach the growing online demographic, print, radio and television published online editions, adding original content to previously  published or broadcast news in other platforms.  

So how are we doing in digital space?  

Based on the 20223 digital report of We Social, Filipinos spend an average of 19 hours and 14 minutes on the internet, with an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes in social media. 

On a positive note, the same study said that the top three reasons for using the internet are: finding information (79.8 percent); Keeping up to date with news and events is on the sixth spot with 69.2 percent.

While, the main reasons why people use social media is, keeping in touch with friends and family (69.2 percent); followed by reading news stories with 47.3 percent.

Unfortunately, while social media carry news, journalists and news organizations are ranked only on the 12th spot for Internet users. 

Conclusion: News must follow its audience

While production of content is important, distribution is equally important; and could perhaps determine the actual reach of providers, including journalists. It is therefore critical for journalists to follow their audience across all platforms. 

In the Philippines, market studies still see TV as playing a crucial role in delivering news and information to the masses. For the press to serve as pillar of democracy, It’s crucial for media organizations to strike a balance between traditional and digital media, ensuring that they provide content in all types of media to meet the needs and preferences of their audiences.

As the media landscape continues to evolve, news organizations need to keep up with the changes and innovate as necessary, adapting style or approach to stay connected to audiences who have moved away from broadcast news. In today’s digital age, it’s no longer enough to simply produce quality content; it’s equally important to ensure that it reaches the right audience through effective distribution. 

The “magic box” now “flat screen” is still seen to retain its place in personal and public spaces, a fixture in restaurants, airports, anywhere people stop, pause, wait. 

It is therefore necessary to keep producing the news. For broadcast news to actually grow its role in the development of democratic societies, it must its increase its hold on the content that flows out from the TV and radio. 

The situation remains fluid. Just as the music market seems now to create special audiences who are going back to record players and LP records, who knows when such a return to TV can drive back the industry to new levels of engagement even better than anything we have yet seen.

Recommendations

To enhance the role of news in a democratic society, the media community should unite in calling for more news, more discussion, more exchange about political matters. KBP should review the present allotment of such small measures to news/public affairs and consider expanding the scope and deepening the context of news and its discussion. 

The placement of public affairs in late night hours excludes so many working Filipinos from the national conversation. 

Meanwhile, faculty and students need to strengthen the foundations of learning news, not just journalistic skills, but the intellectual discipline that will support analysis and interpretation of news. Journalists need to be creative, finding new ways of telling stories that are relevant to people’s role as citizens and their sovereignty as citizens. 

This involves connecting to the audience, understanding their differences and similarities. News conventions have made journalism about the prominent and the powerful. Ironically, this emphasis has weakened the press as a pillar of democracy. 

Moving away from government and other centers of power, news can help people participate in shaping their future. Moving closer to the people, journalists could revitalize press freedom and help cure the ills of Philippine democracy.

This report was presented during the “Fight for Truth and Human Rights: Report Presentation and Round Table Discussion” on 3 May 2023 at the University of the Philippines-College of Mass Communication Auditorium in observance of the 30th World Press Freedom Day. The event was presented by the “Freedom for Media, Freedom For All (FMFA) Network” in partnership with the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC). FMFA is composed of CMFR, NUJP, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Mindanews, and the Philippine Press Institute (PPI).

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Press Freedom in the Philippines Is Critical to Media Worldwide

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Earlier this year, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa’s arrest became the focus of international attention. In an event that was later made the subject of the documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” Ressa and former colleague Reynaldo de Santos Jr were convicted of criminal libel by a Philippines court. This event was highlighted in the media worldwide, with Human Rights Watch calling it a “devastating blow to media freedom” and Forbes labeling it as casting a “darker shadow” over the state of press freedom in the Philippines. 

The state of press freedom in the Philippines must be considered in terms of its implications for media law and the state of global media rights worldwide. What’s happening with the country’s erosion of press freedom can in fact serve as an important warning for democracy and democratic ideals across the globe. 

The arrest of two journalists in the Philippines represents the decline of freedom of speech, and in effect, democracy, in the Philippines. Ressa, who was found guilty of “cyber-libel” with her former colleague under the Philippines’ 2012 Cybercime Prevention Act, had long served as an outspoken critic against President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration. As the co-founder of news site Rappler , she criticized Duterte’s “war on drugs,” exposing the corruption underlying political measures that have claimed the lives of more than 12,000 Filipinos. 

A minor correction to a previously published article allowed Ressa to be tried. According to Rappler’s official timeline of the case, Santos Jr’s article in question linked former chief justice Renato Corona to allegedly corrupt businessman Wilfredo Keng. While the article was published in 2012, before the cyber-libel act was signed into law, it was edited again in 2014 to correct the misspelling of a single word. In 2017, Keng filed a complaint against Rappler regarding his representation in the article. The fact that the article was edited after the passing of the cyber-libel law allowed the two journalists to go to trial. 

This technicality appeared to be only a strategic explanation behind Ressa’s arrest. It is the latest in a series of Duterte’s accusations against Rappler , many of which include allegations of tax evasion and promotion of “fake news.”

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Philippines currently ranks 136 out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Freedom Press Index. In 2019, it was 134, still a sharp contrast from its ranking of 127 in 2017. These are telling statistics to the decline of democracy in the Philippines. Ressa’s case should be analyzed as a case study of the suppression of journalists’ freedom of expression when it comes to criticizing the government. 

In fact, the Duterte administration’s crackdown on media outlets is a clear indication that when there is a threat of political exposure, journalists are often the first scapegoat. 

Since Duterte came into power, there have been numerous attempts by the government at controlling and even threatening the media. The Bayanihan To Heal As One Act was brought into effect in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Although it was described as a means for the government to exercise all powers necessary to manage the pandemic, RSF states that in all actuality, it has appeared to be a cover for the administration to avoid accountability for their public health management. 

According to RSF, the government has used this law to justify their arrest of journalists who report on coronavirus prevention measures in the Philippines. Yet this isn’t all. In addition to current actions taken during the pandemic, Duterte has historically shut down any media that is often critical of the administration. The large Phillippine broadcast network ABS-CBN was forced to cease operations earlier this year for “alleged biased reporting.” This isn’t a surprise, given the president’s crackdown on press freedom as a whole, which includes prosecuting journalists, proclaiming journalists as worthy of “assasination,” and a slew of political actions taken against media outlets perceived to not align with the government’s agenda. 

“Such practices,” writes RSF, “are the prerogative of totalitarian governments.”

As such, it is important to acknowledge press freedom as a key component of democracy. The current state of press freedom in the Philippines serves as a clear reminder that unwarranted censorship is often weaponized as a means of silencing individuals who aim to accurately and truthfully inform the public of the government’s doings. 

As many have noted , Ressa’s arrest and the overall role in the decline of media freedom in the Philippines implies a greater threat that authoritarian leaders and governments pose to human rights. This is more than a domestic issue, but a global one. 

When journalists are repeatedly condemned for their reporting, media worldwide actively pays the cost. When journalistic value is not attributed by its truthfulness, but how well it conforms to a political agenda, it becomes no longer journalism but propaganda. Journalists are fundamental in holding those in power accountable, and the Philippines’ crackdown on press freedoms tells the public to be wary of the inevitable parallels that occur across the world with political leaders, exposure of political corruption and the subsequent harassment of the journalists who bring to light those truths.

While it may be unreasonable to lambast authoritarian regimes as a whole, Ressa’s case demonstrates the extent to which a government that claims to be democratic will attempt to silence journalists. Her case is not an isolated incident, and it is only the latest example of how suppression of journalists is the first step to an eroding democracy in the Philippines, a country where democracy is supposedly built into the constitution. 

By undermining the very foundation of the Philippines’ government through the media, the Philippines should not be considered a true, comprehensive “democracy” as the word applies to the ideal of freedom of expression. Democracy implies a sharing of information, but most importantly it requires the power of the citizens to keep the government in check without fear of retaliation. 

In recent years, Duterte’s efforts to keep the media silenced have not gone unnoticed. After the ABS-CBN closure, the Philippines STAR voiced a strongly worded editorial in early 2020, arguing that it is necessary to prevent the shutting down of media organizations by political powers, as broadcast franchises must be free to operate without fear of political retaliation. 

Journalists across the world have echoed their support for not only Ressa, but also press freedom. Sixty media freedom groups and organizations, including RSF and the International Center for Journalists, initiated the #HoldtheLine campaign to support Ressa in her quest to preserve and sustain democracy. The campaign has so far passed around a petition for the Philippine government to drop all charges against Ressa and Santos. American media such as USA Today have derided Duterte’s actions through opinion articles. David Kaye, the independent United Nations expert on freedom of expression, has condemned Ressa’s case and asked for a reversal of the arrest, claiming that criminalizing the press only demonizes journalism and prevents open debate in favor of political power. 

When the government attempts to keep citizens in line and thwart individual liberties, it is no longer a democracy but an authoritarian state. International agencies and organizations must pay attention to the case of Ressa and the Philippines, which can serve as a precedent for how the media and democracy are regulated for the world. 

Valerie Wu is a senior at the University of Southern California, where she is pursuing a double major in Narrative Studies and Law, History, and Culture, as well as a minor in Cinematic Arts. At Glimpse she specializes in analyzing global arts/entertainment, cultural diplomacy, and the Asia-Pacific region. Outside of Glimpse, she serves as a resident film critic at the Daily Trojan and previously conceptualized and wrote “Soft Power,” a biweekly column about transnational popular culture in relation to Chinese American identity. Originally from the Bay Area, she enjoys exploring Los Angeles and in particular, eating out at restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

[email protected]

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Freedom of Expression Declines Further Under Marcos

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As expected, the Philippines’ new leader has done little to reverse his predecessor’s dire track record on free speech.

Three months after coming to power, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has failed to reassure the media community and the public that he will promote freedom of expression and reverse the impunity that worsened during the term of his predecessor. To be sure, there was little expectation that the son of a deposed dictator would be a champion of press freedom, but his election pledge of unity and healing could have been a good opportunity to affirm his commitment to protecting the public’s right to information.

For the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the first 100 days of the new government saw a continuing decline in free speech, and the group documented 17 cases of press freedom violations. These include two media killings, four cyber libel incidents, two arrests for cyber libel, one libel charge, one case of surveillance and harassment, two cases of “red-tagging,” one denial of coverage, one physical assault, one death threat, and two instances of online harassment.

The recent murder of a radio broadcaster in Metro Manila was widely condemned because of its chilling effect. The murdered journalist was a staunch critic of corruption activities involving officials of the previous and current governments. Surprisingly, a gunman confessed his crime but it raised more questions since the person who supposedly hired him is inside a maximum prison facility and has already died. The quick response of authorities indicated the clamor for swift action against the rising attacks targeting journalists.

After the killing of a radio journalist, several TV reporters came forward to reveal the threats they have been receiving on social media. A reporter also shared that a police officer visited his house to inquire about his safety. These incidents alarmed media watchdogs. The police clarified that they only have good intentions in personally reaching out to journalists, but they promised to stop the practice of making surprise home visits. Authorities also vowed to look into the online threats directed against several prominent journalists.

The Commission on Human Rights has denounced the recent spate of media-related attacks. “Any attempts to silence the press – particularly by creating a culture of fear and violence – directly impacts democracy and the human rights situation in the country.”

The Movement Against Disinformation (MAD) assailed the culture of impunity that has gravely affected the work of journalists. “This is a death by a thousand cuts of Philippine democracy, where a pillar in the checks and balances system is insidiously undermined then suppressed,” the group said in a statement.

MAD and NUJP have also issued statements condemning the practice of red-tagging after several journalists were named as members of the Communist Party and its armed wing by a former spokesperson of the government’s anti-communist task force.

Among the red-tagged journalists was Rappler editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, whose cyberlibel conviction was recently affirmed by the Court of Appeals. She noted that she faces continuing harassment even after a change in government. “The ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against me and Rappler continues, and the Philippines legal system is not doing enough to stop it,” Ressa said. “I am disappointed by today’s ruling but sadly not surprised.”

The veteran Filipino-American journalist and editor could serve time in prison if the Supreme Court rejects her appeal. Various groups have expressed support for Ressa including the Hold the Line Coalition which has called on Marcos to withdraw all charges and cases against her.

Ressa’s case is an important indicator of how the Marcos government will deal with the media. It also has a disturbing implication for other journalists and media companies since Ressa was convicted for an article she didn’t write and charged under a law that had not yet been passed when the alleged libelous article was published by Rappler.

Media groups have been calling for the decriminalization of libel. Instead of heeding this appeal, Marcos signed the Mandatory SIM Card Registration Bill into law, a measure that could potentially enable mass surveillance. Despite the numerous economic and health problems facing the country, it is revealing that the first law signed by Marcos could be a tool for political repression.

Human rights group Karapatan cited the notorious record of the government in upholding the privacy rights of citizens. “The SIM card registration is another attempt of the government to institute false public security when it has failed to uphold the people’s right to security and privacy by being the primary source and enabler of more threats like data breaches, surveillance and poor implementation of laws on data privacy,” it stated.

Journalists continue to face violent threats, critics are slapped with harassment suits, and the public is wary about the impact of the mandatory SIM card registration law. The Marcos government should spend its next 100 days addressing the concern about the unceasing decline of freedom of expression in the country.

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2023 State of Press Freedom in the Philippines

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THIS ANNUAL exercise is rooted in the context of human rights as a manifestation as well as mechanism of democracy. CMFR has always understood the protection of press freedom as a right not only of journalists and members of media but of all citizens. The press provides them with the kind of news and information that empowers them as citizens with the capacity to participate in the public forum, to express their ideas, and finally to choose their leaders wisely as without democrat leaders, democracy falls apart.    

The collection of data related to press freedom has enabled not just CMFR but all its FMFA partners to plan activities, promote media solidarity when journalists are attacked and to identify cases that demonstrate how easily human rights can be trampled upon or trivialized by those in power. 

This year CMFR is presenting two levels of evaluation: data related to the level and the nature of attacks and threats against press freedom based on the consolidated data of CMFR and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Additionally, it presents the map of space and time given to news and public affairs in the Philippine broadcast media. 

The focus on broadcast is in line with the dramatic decline of print as a medium for the various reasons which have been discussed in the past and which we will not take up at this time. 

This year, with hardly any news cheering the event, the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) celebrated its Golden Jubilee, a span of 50 years when broadcast media became a prime source of political information and news for Filipinos. For good or bad, radio and TV sustained operations during periods of dramatic change. Established during the Martial Law regime, it presented itself as a mechanism of self-regulation, while observing the terms of coverage set by government. KBP members were on site to cover People Power events of February 1986, the shaky transition to democracy and EDSA Dos which threw out the actor president Joseph Estrada. 

This report focuses on the present, the state of the press in the country in the first ten months of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

 Attacks and Threats under Marcos Jr.  

Duterte’s personal animosity toward the media was contagious – as other public officials and government agencies followed his example, displaying their own sensitivities or outright hostility toward journalists. CMFR reports each year noted the increase assaults, harassment, banning of journalists from public events, among many others. When Duterte declared his resolve to end the Communist insurgency, law enforcement agencies, through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) initiated more red-tagging of media members and organizations.  Note please that there is no law that bans any ideology or organization for its ideology. Media must update the public on the insurgency; it does not make these reporters insurgents. 

And yet media and individual journalists have become highly vulnerable to such actions by law enforcement agencies. Also targeted are NGOs which publish content related to their advocacy have also been targeted. Uniformed officials  have even raided university libraries for supposedly subversive publications violating learning institutions’ protected academic freedom. Unfortunately, media reports on these without note of these actions being unconstitutional. 

President Marcos Jr. has been amiable toward the press.  His brief speech at the KBP jubilee noted the country’s low ranking at 157 in the global press freedom index. He said he hoped to improve this ranking, and asked the KBP to work with him. His performance as speaker has turned the page from his predecessor. 

But actions speak louder than words. And there has been no real action to prevent the kinds of attacks that made the Duterte regime as dark as it could ever be for the media and for democracy. The improvement shows that at least, attacking journalists and media is no longer government’s number one priority. 

CMFR and NUJP recorded 75 attacks and threats against media workers from June 30, 2022 to April 30, 2023.

40 of the cases of intimidation include 31 cases of red tagging media members or news orgs and 8 cases of surveillance.

10 cases of libel and cyber libel involve two 2 arrests and one 1 conviction.

There were two killings during the period: Rey Blanco on 18 September 2022 and Percy Lapid on 3 October 2022. The latter which featured a highly popular broadcaster who criticized Duterte, Marcos and government actions was followed by the media. Its color elements made it easy to follow. Lapid’s killing involved a procedure featured in a local film where convicts in prison were hired as assassins, the entire scheme plotted with complicity of prison officials. Police investigation identified a ranking official as the alleged mastermind. 

 State agents as alleged perpetrators 

Including Lapid’s case,  41 cases involved state agents as alleged perpetrators.: 23 from the national government; 12 from police; and, 6 from local government.

The fact that the category of red-tagging shows up as the highest number of attacks/threats suggests that Marcos has not departed from Duterte’s custom of deploying law-enforcement agents on various fronts. In fact, 75 exceeds the number of attacks/threats in any one year during the term of Duterte. This suggests that Marcos has not pulled away from the pattern showing state agents themselves actively going after the media. 

 Another level of media containment 

To examine another aspect of control or containment. CMFR scanned the media landscape and mapped the space and time given to news and public affairs – which would show whether the free press provides the kind of news and information that enables and empowers citizens in a democracy. 

These programs ensure that the news media are providing news as a public service, making people aware of what is going on, interpreting current events, helping them think about the issues, engaging them so that their voices can be heard. Most significantly, news should help citizens to think about what they themselves can, including choosing their leaders well. 

The potential for doing this resides more in the broadcast media as print lost its primacy. In the nineties, the growth of the community press expanded democratic space, competing with national newspapers in the provinces. The pandemic however forced many of these enterprises to close down, change owners, move online. One only has to check the number of newspapers in any convenient store to confirm the diminished presence of print in the news market.

Philippine TV Landscape and the Digital Shift

Television arrived in the Philippines in 1952 and into the third millennium had surged as a primary source of entertainment as well as a major source of news and political information.

Even the spread of social media did not dislodge TV’s primacy in the Philippine media landscape. A survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2019 found a TV set in  97.5% of households in the country. As advertising revenues allow free access to TV programs, the medium has dominated the Filipinos’ consumption of news and information with the evening newscast and late night public affairs talk shows. 

Of course, we know that more than anything else, Filipinos turned to television – for entertainment, for diversion, to be in the know about celebrities, connected to the faces and personalities in show business, in noontime variety shows, in day or primetime soap operas. 

But recent developments have caused dramatic changes in national viewing. 

The pandemic and the government’s closure of the major broadcast network, ABS-CBN, caused a tectonic shift in program content and public access to channels.

 COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of ABS-CBN  

The two combined to cause drastic changes in the country’s TV viewing habits. The stringent measures and extraordinary length of the lockdown forced most people to stay at home – which increased TV viewing time. According to a study by Kantar Media Philippines, the average daily TV viewing time in the country increased 24 percent, from 3 hours and 31 minutes in January 2020 to 4 hours and 22 minutes in May 2020.

As the pandemic persisted, however, public health restrictions forced TV networks to adapt. Even in the area of entertainment, production crews were prevented from shooting on-location.   Countless variety shows which depended on the spontaneous participation of live audiences were forced to suspend their long-standing hold on the lunch hour. 

As the virus threat circumscribed movement, TV networks had to come up with new ways to create content, mainly moving programs to online platforms. Networks such as GMA and TV5 strengthened their own streaming services, while ABS-CBN turned completely digital with their content.

 Closing down ABS-CBN  

Meanwhile, in the political realm and quite unrelated to the pandemic, government closed down the largest broadcast network not just in the country but in Southeast Asia. Its channels reached out to Filipino communities abroad. 

The case is well known. The various agencies with whose regulations ABS-CBN was supposed to have been non-compliant declared the network clear of wrongdoing.  Still, the Committee on Public Utility insisted on denying its application to renew its franchise, the last having lasted for fifty years when the network thrived and flourished, establishing its presence in remote areas. The public understanding should appreciate the case simply as abuse of state power.  

ABS-CBN had 143 broadcast stations nationwide; its closure was a major blow to the industry with some ten thousand employees losing jobs. The decision also cut off communities where only ABS-CBN provided free TV channels. 

The government action had another effect. The impact of actual closure darkened newsrooms everywhere as owners of media companies and journalists realized that they could be just as vulnerable to the same kind of attack. TV news became more careful about not crossing lines, afraid of causing offense, and keeping away from sensitive stories. 

 New Players in Post Pandemic  

Entry of Manuel Villar as media mogul after Advanced Media Broadcasting System received the ABS-CBN frequency in January 2022. Villar’s wife and son are sitting senators. 

The broadcast network publicly known as ALLTV had a soft launch on July 15, 2022. However, since February 6, 2023, some of its programs were temporarily shelved due to unknown reasons; its 19-hour programming cut down to 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Meanwhile ABS-CBN scrambled to find ways of transmitting their programs. It is a blocktimer in the A2Z channel, owned by religious leader Eddie Villanueva.  A2Z channel NCR and several major cities including Cebu, Davao and Iloilo. It currently has 22 broadcast stations nationwide. ABS-CBN also has an existing blocktime agreement with TV5 owned by media mogul Manny V. Pangilinan.   ABS-CBN shows, including primetime news program TV Patrol, made a free-tv comeback through these deals. ABS-CBN has become a “content creator” according to Laurenti Dyogi, ABS-CBN head of TV production with more entertainment than news. 

 PH Free TV 

Free TV is an important component of the national communication system. It is what provides TV access to the majority of Filipinos who cannot afford cable and internet fees. Free TV serves as the only source of news and entertainment to the masses. Without ABS-CBN, their access options have drastically declined. 

CMFR did a quick scan of the National Telecommunications Commission’s  (NTC)  complete list of operating TV stations nationwide. ABS-CBN shows currently air in 49 broadcast stations nationwide (22 of A2Z and 27 of TV5 including stations of its affiliate Mediascape Inc.). This number is only 34.27 percent of the 143 stations prior to its closure. 

The current biggest channel, GMA-7 has 106 stations currently operating nationwide.  

News and public affairs programming

Actually, the context of this reduction involves the relatively small amount of news that free TV provides Filipinos. KBP members are only required to dedicate at least 30 minutes of their daily programming to news and current affairs.  All free TV channels except GMA7 are members of the KBP. 

 The NCR news environment 

There are currently around 32 free TV channels available in NCR (with some available in some cities in the. Only 10 of these carry news and public affairs. CMFR did not count GMA’s simulcast of news in its other digital channels. 

Among the TV channels with wide reach, GMA dedicates 23.3 percent or 280 minutes of their 1200 minutes total daily airtime to news and public affairs programs; TV5, 19.3 percent (220 of 1200 minutes); A2Z, 15.8 percent (180 of 1140). CNN is a news channel (100 percent), while PTV4 is primarily a government news and information channel (59.2 percent).

CNN  is an exception as all news channel. Government PTV4 carries government information and news, much of which propaganda. 

SMNI (Quiboloy),  NET 25 are all church or faith-based channels which show more news. CMFR has not scanned the quality of the news these provide. 

ALLTV currently has no news and current affairs in its daily programing.

 The Internet Age: TV goes digital 

The KBP compared the 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2022 (post-pandemic) based on Kantar Media studies and found that TV viewership decreased from 94 percent in 2019 to 89 percent in 2022. Online content, however, increased from 59 percent to 76 percent. Radio listening decreased slightly from 59 percent to 58 percent. 

Despite these setbacks, Philippine TV continues to adapt and evolve. With the rise of streaming services and social media, TV networks have been experimenting with new formats and platforms to reach their audiences; finding creative ways to entertain and engage their viewers.

The internet has become a democratic space for all sorts of content catering to a wide variety of audience. To reach the growing online demographic, print, radio and television published online editions, adding original content to previously  published or broadcast news in other platforms.  

So how are we doing in digital space? 

Based on the 2023 digital report of We Social, Filipinos spend an average of 19 hours and 14 minutes on the internet, with an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes in social media. 

On a positive note, the same study said that the top three reasons for using the internet are: finding information (79.8 percent); Keeping up to date with news and events is on the sixth spot with 69.2 percent.

While, the main reasons why people use social media is, keeping in touch with friends and family (69.2 percent); followed by reading news stories with 47.3 percent.

Unfortunately, while social media carry news, journalists and news organizations are ranked only on the 12th spot for Internet users. 

 Conclusion: News must follow its audience 

While production of content is important, distribution is equally important; and could perhaps determine the actual reach of providers, including journalists. It is therefore critical for journalists to follow their audience across all platforms. 

In the Philippines, market studies still see TV as playing a crucial role in delivering news and information to the masses. For the press to serve as pillar of democracy, It’s crucial for media organizations to strike a balance between traditional and digital media, ensuring that they provide content in all types of media to meet the needs and preferences of their audiences.

As the media landscape continues to evolve, news organizations need to keep up with the changes and innovate as necessary, adapting style or approach to stay connected to audiences who have moved away from broadcast news. In today’s digital age, it’s no longer enough to simply produce quality content; it’s equally important to ensure that it reaches the right audience through effective distribution. 

The “magic box” now “flat screen” is still seen to retain its place in personal and public spaces, a fixture in restaurants, airports, anywhere people stop, pause, wait. 

It is therefore necessary to keep producing the news. For broadcast news to actually grow its role in the development of democratic societies, it must its increase its hold on the content that flows out from the TV and radio. 

The situation remains fluid. Just as the music market seems now to create special audiences who are going back to record players and LP records, who knows when such a return to TV can drive back the industry to new levels of engagement even better than anything we have yet seen.

 Recommendations 

To enhance the role of news in a democratic society, the media community should unite in calling for more news, more discussion, more exchange about political matters. KBP should review the present allotment of such small measures to news/public affairs and consider expanding the scope and deepening the context of news and its discussion. 

The placement of public affairs in late night hours excludes so many working Filipinos from the national conversation. 

Meanwhile, faculty and students need to strengthen the foundations of learning news, not just journalistic skills, but the intellectual discipline that will support analysis and interpretation of news. Journalists need to be creative, finding new ways of telling stories that are relevant to people’s role as citizens and their sovereignty as citizens. 

This involves connecting to the audience, understanding their differences and similarities. News conventions have made journalism about the prominent and the powerful. Ironically, this emphasis has weakened the press as a pillar of democracy. 

Moving away from government and other centers of power, news can help people participate in shaping their future. Moving closer to the people, journalists could revitalize press freedom and help cure the ills of Philippine democracy. END

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