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Philippines The Media
The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press and also
provides free access to records, documents, and papers pertaining
to official acts. Government officials, however, tended to be
leery of reporters, who sometimes ran stories gathered from a
single source or based on hearsay. Libel suits were frequent in
the 1980s.
Traditionally, major newspapers published in Manila have been
owned by elite families. Prior to 1972 Philippine newspapers were
freewheeling, often publishing unsubstantiated stories, but
willing to expose wrongdoing in high places. When Marcos declared
martial law in 1972, he confiscated the assets of newspapers
owned by families not part of his coalition. From 1972 to 1986,
although newspapers were not officially government-owned or
government-supported, they were controlled by Marcos's relatives,
friends, and cronies. After the August 1983 Aquino assassination,
newspapers gradually became more politically independent. When
Marcos fled in 1986, the Commission on Good Government
confiscated the assets of crony-owned newspapers and the
exuberant Philippine press revived quickly; in many cases
newspapers were operated by the families that had controlled them
prior to martial law. In 1991 there were approximately thirty
daily newspapers in the Philippines. Twelve mainly Englishlanguage broadsheets provided serious news. Fourteen tabloids,
mostly Tagalog and Cebuano, offered sensationalism. Four
newspapers were printed in Chinese. Only one newspaper, the
Manila Bulletin, had consistently shown a profit. Another,
the Inquirer, began to show a profit in 1990. Most other
newspapers were losing concerns used by the businesspeople who
owned them to influence government policy and officials.
Television stations in Manila were very profitable to the
wealthy investors who owned them. They also emerged as a
significant political factor, and coup attempts often featured
assaults on television stations. There were very few television
stations outside Manila. Radio reached people in remote areas,
even villages without electricity. Radio stations in the
provinces tended to be owned by wealthy local families involved
in politics.
Data as of June 1991
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