On September 21st, 1972, then-president Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in the Philippines. Letter of Instruction No. 1 immediately followed - directing the armed forces to seize control of all media.
Admittedly, this was before my time. But by 1984, when former Senator Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, and culminating in the so-called People Power in 1986, I became aware of the government’s control of the newspapers and the nightly news. And thus began my general distrust of the media. Don’t believe everything you read or see on TV. And that extends to the Internet today.
In 1987, the new Philippine Constitution enshrined the freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Article III, Section 4. Almost word for word, the First Amendment to the US Constitution was clearly the model for this section.
And while I still distrust the media, (they are after all, business entities that need to make money through advertising, and they are run by people with biases, organizations with a political agenda, and sometimes led by moguls who have less than stellar records), I still am thankful that, in principle, they can report freely without fear of government repercussions, providing that they are factual and accurate. After all, freedom comes with responsibility.
With all this in the background, I am saddened by the news that today, ABS-CBN, a local TV network that was once shuttered in 1972 precisely because of Letter of Instruction No. 1, has been ordered to cease operations, no doubt because they have been critical of the current Duterte administration. Apparently, Congress has the power to grant, or in this case, extend a broadcast network’s franchise license. And the current Philippine Congress is filled with the president’s allies.
While I may not always agree with what the media chooses to report, I choose to defend their right to do so.
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