Controlling the Media

From the Tribune Editorial:

CPR on the Airwaves

Ceding the powers of the National Telecommunications Commission to the Department of Transportation and Communications would seem on the surface a negligible act since the NTC has always been considered a line agency of the DoTC until it was placed under the wings of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, from which will be formed a Department of Information and Communications Technology.

It would thus be a wonder for Malacañang to insist on the return of the NTC under the DoTC's supervision was being done for the purpose of streamlining, when it has already been streamlined.

NTC is vested with quasi-judicial powers, the intent of which was for decisions on the crucial telecommunications and broadcast industries to pass through the commissioners and not one person, and definitely not Leandro Mendoza.

Executive Order 454, another of the Frankenstein orders of Mrs. Arroyo, was issued clearly to allow a switch for Gloria to turn on and off on the broadcast and even the telecommunications industry by vesting NTC's powers to the DoTC chief who is known to be a trusted former police general of Mrs. Arroyo.

The creeping martial law that Gloria has resorted to in the absence of popular support for her after she stole the vote in the last elections would necessitate the control of the media and that would be handed to Gloria in a silver platter once control over the industry had been given to Mendoza.

It takes longer to muzzle a committee, where decisions at the NTC pass through, than an already proven lapdog like Mendoza. Apparently Gloria wants the muzzling of media done swiftly when in her desperate state, she calls for it.

Control of the airwaves is where the fountain of power of a ruling administration lies, the reason attempts to grab government power has to initially involve the takeover of a television or radio station.

Manipulation of public opinion by a tyrannical ruler is done through putting on a leash newspapers and the broadcasting stations.

While the current NTC is definitely not immune from the political bias of the current administration or those before it, it follows a juridical process in deciding issues. Disputes are settled primarily through public hearings.

Now directly under Mendoza, it would be easy to deduce how decision-making would be done under the NTC.

The executive order becomes more significant in the face of the political crisis facing Gloria. While there's a grain in presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye's claim that Gloria practically allows media to shout at her at every turn, Gloria in turn blames all the problems that basically she has created or conjured up on media reporting. And as she blames the media, that would be her target, once total power is grabbed by her.

Placing the NTC within reach of Gloria through Mendoza allows her also a preemptive advantage on critical media.

While the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has the regulatory power over programs, the NTC has the broader jurisdiction over broadcasting licenses that it can use to cut a television or radio station off the air in one fell swoop.

Gloria is thus extending the preemptive nature of her calibrated preemptive response from the streets to the airwaves by issuing the EO.

Bunye has lost his credibility, and by saying the EO was issued as a matter of course and that the controversy about it is being caused by paranoia makes people worry more.

It is Gloria who is now in a state of paranoia after she cheated the whole country of the right to choose a rightful leader in the May elections last year.

People asking her to step down are growing by the day and she seems to be playing a guessing game on the military's next move.

It is in such heightened state of anxiety that she issued the EO. How now can anybody believe Bunye saying the EO was issued as part of a government reorganization?

Clearly the intention was diabolical.

More here: Nangangambang crackdown sa media? Sana hindi totoo to.

Anyway, nagsalita na naman yung sipsip kay Arroyo:

Sa tono nga kahapon sa DZBB ni Manila Mayor Lito Atienza ay hindi siya natutuwa sa ginawang coverage ng mga mediamen sa naganap na dispersal sa San Sebastian Church sa Maynila noong nakaraang Biyernes.

Ayon kay Atienza, hindi raw patas ang media at halatang bias laban sa mga pulis dahil masyadong pabor sa mga rallyista ang mga komentaryo at balita.

Ang ganitong mga pahayag na nanggagaling sa numero unong tagapagtanggol ni GMA sa Maynila ay lalong dapat katakutan ng media dahil puwede nilang gamitin ang "media bias" bilang batayan para magsagawa ng crackdown sa mga mamamahayag.