Not Allowing Foreign Ownership Of Media In The Philippines Isn't Media Democracy

The problem isn't when foreigners express concern for the Philippines but when they do play selective concern. Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland has given that tweet (above) where she gives her latest concern for Maria Ressa. While she is right in saying that harassment and intimidation of journalists is not part of a healthy democracy -- but does she know what Ressa is actually doing? I admit, Ressa's acting skills are indeed excellent that she too should receive an Oscar's for best acting -- she's deceived a foreign minister in her victim playing! Is Freeland herself aware of the Negative List in the Philippines concerning foreign investments? She better do some research right now because if she should realize this that no foreign equity for mass media (such as television and press) is ever allowed in the Philippines. Now don't tell me that's not a threat to Philippine media democracy?

Anyone can argue that the end of the Marcos regime toppled a dictatorship but at what cost? What's the use of ending the Marcos Crony Capitalism when crony capitalism is still rampant with other Filipino politicians? Economic protectionism still continues to empower the oligarchs one way or another. What's the use of complaining about Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.'s overly strict censorship all the while the current 1987 Constitution disallows foreign equities from getting involved in mass media? How did that even benefit the Filipino people. No, it only benefited the big time Filipino-owned networks especially ABiaS-CBN and GMA-7 because there's so little competition there!

The 30 plus years of dominance of the media oligarchy is a threat to media democracy for these reasons. They control what the people think. A good example is the Yellow Media such as ABiaS-CBN, Inquirer and CRappler. Other Filipino media companies that exercise professional journalism will get overshadowed by big time ones that do otherwise. Worse, the oligarchy media has been used to deceive people with not just idiotic teleseryes but also with muddled up news. All the while -- it seems to be that the media oligarchy is actually receiving foreign help behind the scenes so they could further dominate and dumb down their fellow Filipinos.

It had me thinking of what it was growing up as 90s child. Most Filipinos can't even afford Cable TV. We had Cable TV so we were finally able to watch something else aside from the local Filipino networks. Now, one can argue one can pay a monthly Netflix or i-Flix but how many people today have good stable Internet? Most people today are usually stuck with plain terrestrial television and good Internet speed is hard to find. The result is that most people are still stuck in the media limbo created by the mass media oligarchy. I guess it only makes sense why the 1987 Constitution disallows foreign networks from operating in the Philippines!