PCP statement on the denial of ABS-CBN franchise

Candle-light vigil at the ABS-CBN headquarters. Photo by Fernando G. Sepe Jr./PCP

We knew it from the very start.

The callous and brazen conduct of some of the members of the House of Representatives were indicative that it was never a fair hearing.

In fact it was never a hearing of the application for the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise. It was an incrimination.

It is as if all the lapses and mistakes committed by the broadcast network were crimes against humanity.

In reality, the mistakes were all administrative lapses that could have been subjected to whatever penalties applicable under the concerned government bodies.

Closing the giant media network for whatever lapses it could have committed was never and would have never been part of the deal in a just, nay a democratic, society.

Press freedom is when journalists who have dedicated all their lives to the profession can continue to work freely because their programs and platforms still exist.

But these do not exist anymore, and the people these programs are supposed to be serving got the raw end of the deal.

ABS-CBN is not being watched on the remote island of Occidental Mindoro anymore. DZMM is not being heard in Aurora province anymore.

Everywhere in the country, screens have turned black and radios have been silenced.

The attack on legitimate media together and the recently passed Anti-Terrorism ACT are throwbacks to the time of autocratic rule under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Citizens you have been warned. Your civil liberties have been eroded. Your democracy is shrinking fast.