english,
Opinion: Is It FAIR?
Photo credits: Yel Brusola
Last May 19, 2017, the broadcasting company ABS-CBN was charged with "multiple estafa" by President Duterte, because the network allegedly failed to show his electoral advertisement during the election period despite his payment of 2.8 million pesos. Other candidates, specifically Alan Peter Cayetano and Francis Escudero, were said to have experienced the same thing.
Because of this, the President threatened that he will refuse to renew the company’s franchise because he is really angry about what they did.
Is it fair?
It is indeed not fair to take a large amount of money from someone and do nothing in return. As we already know, the ABS-CBN is an independent company. So if these allegations are proven to be true, then perhaps there might be politics involved? Does ABS-CBN have a political bias which made them decide not to show Duterte's electoral ads and instead, aired an anti-Duterte ad sponsored by Antonio Fuentes Trillanes IV in which they showed Duterte cursing? If so, then is it still appropriate to say that the media is unbiased?
What if the company is actually proven to be guilty of the said crime? It's not just the people who are subscribing to this media producing company who would be greatly affected by the case, but also those who work in the company, especially their families, who greatly depend on these people. ABS-CBN is composed of networks of people who worked together for a specific goal. Artists are not the only ones who work there. There are also directors, producers, script writers, art directors, the crew, news reporters among many others. But I don't think ALL people in the company agreed to do the crime itself, if it's for the sake of politics, I don't think all these people in general agreed to do it, since each one of us has their own set of Political bias and everyone has their capability in creating their own decisions. For example, if someone gets involved in a crime, do we punish his or her family for it? Do we not target those who actually did the crime instead? Perhaps there might be a more appropriate way to solve this problem. A fix is better than a total shutdown for everyone including those who are not liable.
So if the company did not do their job, why can't Duterte just file a complaint or bid ABS-CBN to return the money that they have taken away? If the company is proven guilty, then there goes the penalty and the criminal will be punished. Why should a thousand people suffer if it's the fault of only a few people or a person?
Then we should see this as an impediment to press freedom. If they haven't done anything at all, then it's a personal motive. If this is how the government's going to handle independent media companies in the future, then what is the sense of having an independent media company that serves as a watchdog for the government itself? So, coming from this idea, the media is now considered as biased, because the government made them to be one.
Unfairness can cause a lot of problems. Unfairness can be in the form of a wrongdoing or in the form of the punishment itself. But whichever form it is, the weight of its nature and the personal anger that it causes is a lot heavier and very devastating than we usually think it's going to be. //by Kathleen Cortez
0 comments: