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Philippine Government Orders Shutdown of ABS-CBN Over License Lapse


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A Philippine government agency on Tuesday ordered the country’s leading broadcast network, which the president has targeted for its critical news coverage, to halt operations after its congressional franchise expired, sparking shock over the loss of a major news provider during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://apnews.com/fc45af8058069fc98033a9b096fdb256

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2 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

I fear this could mean the media could be under further attack in the US too.

Could we see Trump try to take licenses away from, say, CNN or MSNBC? Biden or a future Democratic POTUS take it away from Fox News?

 

The licensing regimes are not the same; CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC are cable channels, not terrestrial channels like ABS-CBN. Very few of the cable channels' operations are FCC-regulated. You'd have to have Trump (or a Dem POTUS in the case of Fox News) somehow convince the cities where the cable networks have their HQs and bureaux to cancel their business licenses/certificates of occupancy AND convince the cable operators and/or cable franchising authorities to drop the channels from their lineups.

 

NBC, Fox, ABC, and CBS would be "easier" to deal with in that they're terrestrial networks whose O&Os and stations are licensed by the FCC. Trump (or a Dem POTUS in the case of Fox) could come up with some stupid argument that none of their affiliates are acting in "the public interest", which would be grounds for the cancellation of their stations' licenses if such an accusation could be proven. Of course, the accusation would not be proven, as the networks and station ownership groups would immediately head to court, and the courts would shoot such a crazy stunt down. If not, we have much bigger things to worry about than station licenses being cancelled.

 

In other words, no, there is no risk of an ABS-CBN situation happening here short of the establishment of an actual dictatorship.

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9 hours ago, Big Country News said:

A Philippine government agency on Tuesday ordered the country’s leading broadcast network, which the president has targeted for its critical news coverage, to halt operations after its congressional franchise expired, sparking shock over the loss of a major news provider during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://apnews.com/fc45af8058069fc98033a9b096fdb256

 

Ironic, coming from you Remington.

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I’d argue that the ABS-CBN shutdown makes the Philippines effectively an authoritarian regime, considering it checks the second of the two biggest red flags that a country is falling into authoritarianism: the successful coercion, seizure or shutdown of independent media and the arrest of political opponents for arbitrary reasons.
 

Duterte’s government had the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission try to shut down Rappler, which was openly critical of his war on drugs that effectively became a genocide, and had ordered the arrest of its founder/editor-in-chief Maria Ressa (twice), and now their telecommunications agency ordered ABS-CBN (which Duterte accused of refusing to run his campaign ads) in compliance with efforts to muzzle the network that have been going on since February, using the expiration of its license (which had its renewal held up for quite a while in the National Telecommunications Commission and their Congress, which is majority represented by pro-Duterte politicians). To explain the issues with press freedom in that country, take this excerpt from Rappler’s Wikipedia article:

Quote

A BBC News report described wider concerns about the media in the Philippines, citing how a major campaign donor of the Philippine president had earlier become majority shareholder of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a newspaper critical of the government's war on drugs. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility also cited verbal attacks by the Philippine president and close allies on media organizations that have released critical reports on the government.

 

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On 5/5/2020 at 9:34 AM, Big Country News said:

A Philippine government agency on Tuesday ordered the country’s leading broadcast network, which the president has targeted for its critical news coverage, to halt operations after its congressional franchise expired, sparking shock over the loss of a major news provider during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://apnews.com/fc45af8058069fc98033a9b096fdb256

Reminds me much of Venezuela's RCTV, whose closure in May 2007 when Venezuela's Government (helmed by Chavistas, those aligned with late then-leader hugo chavez) decided not to renew their broadcast concession, accusing their role in the 2002 coup d'etat, which briefly overthrew its socialist government.  Its Justice system upheld the decision by the National Commission of Telecommunications (Venezuela's FCC) not to renew RCTV's broadcast license. Other two stations (Venevision, Televen) were also similarly accused but their licenses were renewed. Their reports were less critical of the gov't since then. No trial was ever set around that time or since then. That created outcry by opponents + other notable world figures accusing the gov't of 'silencing the media'. A memorable retrospective marathon in support of the network + its workers (actors, journalists, hosts) aired live on its last night. After signoff, it was replaced with a 'chavista' supported network on its signal. 

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18 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

Who?

 

Big Country News is Remington Hernandez, from NewsNet. He's also a big Fox News fan and Trump sycophant. I find it ironic that Fox and the Trump admin have a feedback loop and that FNC is basically state media, and yet Remington is posting about how terrible it is that ABS-CBN has been forced off the air as it's critical of Duterte. You'd think he'd be elated and begging the FCC to do the same here because they don't support our Dictator (praise be).

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1 minute ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

Big Country News is Remington Hernandez, from NewsNet. He's also a big Fox News fan and Trump sycophant. I find it ironic that Fox and the Trump admin have a feedback loop and that FNC is basically state media, and yet Remington is posting about how terrible it is that ABS-CBN has been forced off the air as it's critical of Duterte. You'd think he'd be elated and begging the FCC to do the same here because they don't support our Dictator (praise be).

I didn't know we got some people here in the big time 😂

 

 

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