Some Facts about the ABS-CBN Closure

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In the Philippines, another recent event overshadowed the coronavirus crisis from the limelight. It's the Cease and Desist order by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)for the giant news network ABS-CBN which took effect on May 5, 2020. There were lots of reactions posted online. Some were disappointed because they can no longer watch their favorite shows. Some were happy for several reasons. Some believe that this is politically motivated. Some even claimed that this 'closure' is an attack to press freedom or even the death of press freedom in the Philippines. This is based on the vocal declaration of the President against the said station months ago. Thus the common idea is, the reason behind ABS-CBN is because of the President angry at the said network. He wants to silence it because of its biased reporting against the current administration. And there arE some quesTions with regards to the timing. A question that even the Vice President aired publicly. I did a little digging on this issue. I will try to present the facts as objectively as I can and provide as much information to the best of my knowledge. 1. The President had aired his dismaY against the network in the past. This is due to the campaign ads of the president which were not aired during The 2016 election. However, the same station kept on airing the political ads by the other candidates which same are targetting Duterte. 2. The station recently apologized publicly and announced that they will return the payment for the un-aired ads to the President. 3. The President accepted the apology but declined the refund for the campaign ads and instead suggested to give it to any charitable institution. 4. The franchise license of ABS-CBN has expired last May 4, 2020. The C&D order took effect on May 5. It is the Congress that gives the franchise license for broadcast networks (TV and radio). 5. The franchise renewal has been pending in Congress for three years already. 6. A group of Cable-TV operators filed a complaint against ABS-CBN due to their TV-Plus services that were supposed to be subscription free. TV-Plus is a wireless Digital TV Decoder appliance. With this device attached to The TV, users should be able to watch free TV channels broadcasted By ABS-CBN. But laTer on, the netwOrk sTarted offering pay-per-view channels which include Showing local and Hollywood movies. 7. The Solicitor-General Caleda petitioned to the Supreme Court to scrap the franchise because of several violations including 'illegal pay-per-view' offerings through their TV Plus. 8. One alleged violation is that ABS-CBN is said to be partlY owned by a foreigner. This was cleared by SEC and stated that ABS-CBN did not violate and SEC terms. 9. The Congress, which is the body authorized to grant the franchise to any broadcasT network, ordered the NTC to grant the network provisionary license to broadcast. The speaker said that it is not a priority issue at the moment. (Some broadcast network had continued to operate in the past with expired licenses while the renewal is waiting for deliberation in Congress.) 10. However, NTC gave the Cease and Desist order which took effect on May 5. 11. It is said, the NTC was pressurEd bY the Solicitor-General. 12. The C&D order affected only the services using the airwaves, thus it affected only tHe TV and radio channels (ABS-CBN Channel-2 and DZMM radio). 13. The ANC or All News Channel which is broadcasted over Cable TV is not affected. 14. The Network's streaming services and the app continues. Thus, iWant TV, their YouTube channel can continue broadcasting. 15. The company itself is not closed, thus the 11,000 employees did not lose their jobs. 16. The Network's nightly news program "Magandang Gabi, Bayan" was aired via the Internet starting May 8*. The same program is always streamed through iWant and YouTube before the C&D order. These are the facts that I know so far and from what I have gathered from different sources. Two of these sources arE indicaTed Below. I will leave it up to you for now to make your own conclusion. references: https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/24/20/cable-group-insists-abs-cbn-violated-franchise-with-tv-plus-service Image Source: The first link above.