PCP stands with Press Freedom

No To ABS CBN Shutdown - Defend Press Freedom

Media and rights groups gather at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City to decry the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor General Calida against the media giant ABS CBN on Monday, February 10, 2020. The groups urged the authorities to stop the crackdown on media entities critical of the government. They also called on the public to defend press freedom and the freedom of expression. Feb 10, 2020. Photo by Jire Carreon/PCP

Reporters, photographers, cameramen, artists, technical crew and media professionals stand to lose their jobs if ABS-CBN shuts down. 

Everybody connected to their principals at ABS-CBN as assistants, contributors, suppliers, and others, numbering probably tenfold of the 11,000 employees of the media outfit, will also be affected. 

But more than the direct victims of the government's relentless pursuit to silence what it perceives as media critical of its work and policies, it is the public, which has been the television network's consumer in the 25 years of its current franchise, who stand to lose the most. 

ABS-CBN is, after all, nothing without its audience. Its millions of subscribers on TV Plus alone and the millions more on free-to-air TV constitute the largest chunk of the viewing public. 

To deprive them of the network’s services is to deprive them of the freedom of access to information. If President Rodrigo Duterte has a grievance on the network, the courts are the proper venue. If ABS-CBN committed lapses in its 25 years holding the franchise, then the congressional hearings are the venue. 

But to use all three branches of the government to go after the media network to stop it from airing slaps off as curtailment of media freedom and consequently the people’s right to information. 

It is the public’s right to information, the freedom of the press, and our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression that are threatened. 

Let the people hear the arguments and let the people decide if they want to continue patronizing ABS-CBN. 

Anything less is curtailing the people’s right to know and to choose. Anything less is tantamount to tyranny.  

Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines | 2020