The Philippines is known as one of the known countries that exercises democracy, since the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos was toppled down from his pedestal.

 

One of the blessings of this democracy is the freedom of information and of speech vested by the 1987 Freedom Constitution. From then on, the mass media that was once silenced by authoritarianism has thrived again.

 

But just recently, freedom of the press is being challenged once more.

 

Just this week, the registration of Rappler, an online news media network, was revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unfortunately, their grounds for revocation has a legal basis.

 

As stated by the Article XVI, Section 11, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution, foreign equity and ownership to mass media are restricted.

 

This is the same provision in the Constitution that the administration wants to amend, giving less restrictions to foreign equity.

 

Rappler was established since 2012. In 2015, the same commission accepted the Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDR) of the foreign investors of Rappler.

 

PDR is a financial instrument that does not give the foreign investors an owner voting powers and to influence to day-to-day activities. Rappler claims that their foreign investors are just funding, but not owning them. Even if the foreign investors don’t intervene directly to the company, it’s investment does affect the day-to-day operations since the company cannot work well without the financial aids, which could be a strong argument of the commission and of the administration against them.

 

In the recent 2017 State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte dropped the names of Rappler and ABS-CBN because of the two media companies are being critical to him and to the administration.

 

2 big mass media companies ABS-CBN and GMA also have foreign investors. If the same legal ground will be used against them, they will also face the fate of Rappler.

 

This could be desperate measure of the administration to bring down their detractors and to push forward their self-serving agenda.

 

Media control and censorship breeds authoritarianism. If this administration wants full control, and they cannot do it if there is a free press. This has already been done by Marcos, and with this administration, it could also happen.

 

In this time that the cyberspace is being flooded by waves of misinformation and disinformation, the people need institutions that provides truth and serves as the watchdog of the government, but now they are facing risks of suppressing their press freedom by this administration, just because of simply doing their job.

 

This is the first time that the government is directly attacking mass media since Marcos regime, and it is something that the members of the press and the people that still have faith to the institution and to the democracy that should be alarmed with.

 

#StandWithRappler.

Stand for truth.

Stand for press freedom.

Stand for democracy.

 

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