Philippines' Largest TV Network Shutters After Government Order

What happens when you don't have the sophistication of Justin Trudeau to bribe the networks into not printing anything negative about you.

By Sommer Brokaw

Supporters of ABS-CBN held a demonstration calling for government to uphold press freedom,

outside the House of Representatives in Quezon City, east of Manila, Philippines in March. Despite

the protest, the network shutdown Tuesday because of a government order to cease operations.

File Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- The Philippines' largest television network, ABS-CBN, shut down Tuesday after its license expired under government order.

The network, which employed about 11,000 people, signed off after broadcasting its evening news.

The National Telecommunications Commission ordered it earlier in the day to cease TV and radio broadcasts since its 25-year franchise license expired Monday, a statement posted on Twitter shows.

"This is in compliance with the cease and desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission today that prohibits ABS-CBN from continuing its broadcast operations effective immediately," a company statement said.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies previously accused the network of airing his opponents' advertisements during the 2016 election campaign, but not his.

Network President Carlo Katigbak apologized to Duterte during congressional hearings on the franchise's renewal in February and clarified operations regarding how it aired advertisements.

Duterte has also been upset by critical news coverage of his bloody war against drugs.

Lawmakers had a resolution to allow the network to continue operation as its renewal was pending. But on Sunday, which marked World Press Freedom Day, Philippines Solicitor General Jose Calida threatened to charge the NTC with corruption if it granted a temporary permit.

Calida also filed a petition in February with the Supreme Court seeking to revoke the ABS-CBN franchise.

Network supporters had protested back in March outside the House of Representatives in Quezon City. Critics added that the network was singled out because of Duterte's disdain for it.

"It sends a clear message: What Duterte wants, Duterte gets," the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement. "And it is clear, with the brazen move to shut down ABS-CBN, that he intends to silence critical media and intimidate everyone else into submission."

The Philippines has been considered one of the world's most dangerous countries to be a journalist and this year fell down two spots on the World Press Freedom Index to 136th place.

"The order threatens press freedom at a time when the public needs an unfettered press the most," the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines added in a statement. "As the Philippines reels from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, ABS-CBN's critical eye is needed now more than ever to help inform the public."

A free press is the only thing that stands between a healthy democracy and autocracy. Some countries simply murder journalists who reveal state corruption, while others just disappear, and still others are bought and paid for. When the press stops criticizing the government, democracy is in its death throes.