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Shutting key TV channel would be step to ‘dictatorship’
18 January 2020
PHILIPPINES: Media academic warns shutting key TV channel would be step to ‘dictatorship’
Pacific Media Centre's Professor David Robie ... a wide-ranging speech on media freedoms in the Asia-Pacific region. Image: The Varsitarian
By Camille Abiel H. Torres,
Charm Ryanne C. Magpali, Laurd Menhard Salen of The
Varsitarian
MANILA (The Varsitarian/Asia Pacific Report/Pacific Media Watch): A New Zealand media academic and freedom advocate has warned that shutting down the Philippines’ largest and most popular media network would be a move toward dictatorship.
Professor David Robie, director of the New Zealand-based Pacific Media Centre and journalism professor at Auckland University of Technology, said President Rodrigo Duterte’s displeasure toward ABS-CBN Corporation was not enough reason to deprive it of a franchise.
“There’s no justification in doing that [not renewing the franchise of ABS-CBN]. Doing that is moving towards dictatorship,” Dr Robie said in the recent annual memorial John Jefferson Siler lecture-forum at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
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