Pulling the plug on news programs is inevitable once they are already unprofitable. Employees are laid off, internal teams dissolved, and services for the public forcefully stopped.
This is exactly how the planned shutdown of ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo on June 30 reminds us of the fragility of privatized news organizations and the overlooked danger they pose to disseminating information. Here, the thin line separating news as a duty and as a product starts to blur. And in the middle of it all, Filipinos will again take the blow who, for a significant portion of their lives, have benefited from TeleRadyo’s services during its 16 years of airing.
Then known as DZMM TeleRadyo, the television-radio program has been airing on Philippine radio systems since April 2007. It was closed for the first time on May 5, 2020, when the National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN to comply with their cease and desist order, following the rejection of their franchise renewal. Now branded simply as TeleRadyo, none anticipated that it would face yet another shutdown just three years later.
As evidenced by more than 220 million active users on their news website and its international awards, ABS-CBN seems to have a solid chain of viewers. But the damage caused by the shutdown three years ago was too immense for the market and profit recovery of their programs, including TeleRadyo, which is now forced to shut down.
But with fake news stirring in the air, who, then, will fill in this absence? Who else will provide Filipinos with accurate information better than one of the very few news programs that had both the resources and the means to brave the COVID-19 pandemic?
Not all media organizations in the country possess the same coverage that ABS-CBN and its constituent divisions have. Its only close rival in the whole region is GMA Network Inc., another privately-run company that is one rejected franchise away from suffering the same defeat that ABS-CBN bore. This is the same defeat that caused tremendous financial losses and thousands of employees to be laid off in the Kapamilya channel.
We can only imagine what Philippine media will become should the government set its eyes on the GMA Network franchise next.
If this handful of multi-billion-worth companies, whose services reach even those in far-flung provinces, continue to grow themselves at the expense of jeopardizing the production of credible news, the country will see the blinding of its media.
Pulse Asia in 2021 recorded that 91% and 49% of Filipinos watch television and listen to radio, respectively, as their platforms to get information. Should more programs continue to be shut down, millions of Filipinos will lose their primary source of news while being more prone to consuming fake information simultaneously.
Arguably, the whole country knows we cannot afford more fake news.
There is also the question of media independence, as ABS-CBN’s management announced it would engage in a joint venture with Prime Media Holdings Inc. in exchange for shutting down TeleRadyo. Prime Media is owned by House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose father shutdown ABS-CBN in 1972 after he declared Martial law.
Even if Romualdez assured the remaining staffers that his company will provide a separate editorial body, concerns arise as the whole purpose of privatizing news organizations seems to buckle under the influence of a political figure. This is highlighted by the Marcos family’s history of shutting down news stations in exchange for setting up their propaganda. Would critical news pointed at the government be censored then? Such and such are prime examples of the conflicts of interest that will arise in this partnership.
The privilege of having immense resources to run a news media conglomerate is held by very few in the Philippines. And none are more bound to calls for service than them, especially ABS-CBN, which prides itself on being “in the service of the Filipino.”
If profitability continues to dwindle, should we allow these companies to shut down other news programs like TV Patrol, 24 Oras, or Aksyon? To what extent do we tolerate shutting down news programs that serve millions of Filipinos daily?
One can argue that alternative media is ready to fill in the gaps left by off-air news programs. But in practice, they are not. While true to the cause of free speech, the digital presence of Bulatlat or AlterMidya is not yet strong enough to service Filipinos on a national scale, unlike that of TeleRadyo.
While basking in the true nature of these businesses, companies, particularly the news media under them, and the people must work hand-in-hand. They need each other to grow: these companies cannot afford the financial strains of running their news programs; Filipinos, meanwhile, cannot afford the loss of one of their few remaining sources of information.
Even then, the fight for press freedom and against fake news rages no matter the cost. With TeleRadyo’s unfortunate and untimely shutdown, one can hope that other news programs will replace it tenfold.
These happen when the news does not sell.
Article: John Lloyd A. Aleta
Graphics: Aira Shandy Dagohoy
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