ABS-CBN signs off: Politicians dominate coverage, public interest sidelined
IN THE hands of members of the House of Representatives of Congress, franchise power has been captured by political forces. Without Congressional action on its renewal, the 25-year franchise of ABS-CBN, the country’s largest media network, expired on May 4, 2020.
Because there was no valid franchise, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN on May 5, forcing the company to sign off at 7:52 pm. The order caught the public by surprise, gaining front-page space and airtime in other media, including rival broadcast networks.
After signing off on May 5, ABS-CBN resumed its primetime newscast, TV Patrol, on social media pages and websites on May 7. But all its entertainment programs are suspended.
During a Senate hearing last February 24, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that Congress can authorize NTC to grant a temporary permit to operate until the House decides on ABS-CBN’s franchise application.
News of NTC’s cease and desist order tracked the ensuing blame game among government officials and agencies. The focus on political bickering sidelined the discussion of public service and media freedom issues inherent in the closure of a large media enterprise. Media seemed oblivious of the constitutional protection of free expression and press freedom involved in the closure, leaving it out of their accounts.
CMFR monitored the coverage of six Manila-based broadsheets (Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, The Manila Times, Manila Standard and Daily Tribune), four primetime programs (GMA-7’s 24 Oras, CNN Philippines’ News Night, TV5’s One News Now and ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol) and selected online news sites from May 4 to 12, 2020.
Focus on politics
News accounts said the NTC order was issued after Solicitor General Jose Calida’s warning to the commission not to allow ABS-CBN to continue airing. Reports recalled that the NTC had previously assured the network that it would be granted a provisional authority to continue operations.
Officials who were quoted in reports either supported the NTC’s move or disapproved of it. Senators and some representatives said the NTC backed out of its assurance to issue a temporary permit for ABS-CBN’s operations.
Curiously, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, who had previously assured the Senate that it would grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority, was nowhere in the coverage. Media questioned Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios instead, who said the NTC studied the decision carefully, and had no choice but to order the closure after Congress failed to renew the network’s franchise. He talked about legal remedies available for ABS-CBN, saying the network can seek a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court.
Calida blamed Congress for its inaction on the network’s franchise. Other representatives criticized House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano himself for sitting on the pending franchise bills.Reports also noted that Cayetano was initially silent about the issue, only speaking three days after the NTC order to criticize the commission for reneging on its assurance and Calida for his intervention.
For its part, the Palace steered clear of the issue, as Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told the media that the granting of a franchise is a legislative responsibility. Reports quoted Roque as saying that President Rodrigo Duterte was “neutral” on the matter, a comment which did not provoke questions from the Malacanang press. The media did not include in their reports the fact that it was Duterte himself who had threatened ABS-CBN with franchise cancellation, not once but several times.
The coverage didmention that several bills on the ABS-CBN franchise are still pending in the House. But the Bulletin correctly and succinctly observed, “House members threw the blame at the NTC, notwithstanding the fact that delayed action on the part of the Lower House has been pointed to as the main reason for the expiration of the franchise of the network, considered among the broadcast leaders in the country.” This observation was not emphasized enough across the media, as reporters fixed their focus on the issuance of the NTC order.
Press freedom and public interest
The political finger-pointing sidelined substantive discussion of the issues of public interest involved in the closure of a media service. Reports picked up the protest of journalists’groups, members of the academe, the church and the business sector – many of which stressed the critical need for current updates during the pandemic, and people’s access to information that can help them deal with the threat of deadly disease. At the same time, news accounts continued to cite the government sources who persisted in arguing the legal issues surrounding the ABS-CBN franchise. No journalist asked public officials to consider the constitutional guarantees of press freedom and free expression.
Coverage did not reflect substantial discussion of the “chilling effect” of the closure on the media and press community. Officials allied with the president denied that the non-renewal is an attack on press freedom since ABS-CBN can still air content in other platforms. Coverage did not touch the underlying concern that franchise power had been effectively subverted by politics, with media companies thrown at the mercy of legislators, the majority of whom are Duterte allies.
Cayetano, who had all the time to prod the Committee on Legislative Franchises to act, sponsored House Bill 6732 himself on May 13, granting a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN valid until October 31, 2020. It was passed on second reading and will have to go through the third and final reading before it is sent to the Senate for its approval and to the president for his signature