Photo by Agence France Presse, posted in its twitter account 3 hours ago, used here non-commercially for academic purposes
University of the Philippines Film student Revy Marata leads hundreds of students, campus editors, and professionals in a rally on Mendiola Bridge a few meters from Malacañang to protest the state harassment of news editors of Rappler and other news media organizations.
(Normally, socialites and aspiring starlets splurge hundreds of thousands of pesos in cosmetic surgery and dermabrasion to be picture-perfect, and spend millions of pesos more to ensure publicity and land on the cover of magazines, to be guested in talk shows, featured in showbiz lifestyle channels — )
if on mobile device: Pls click “Listen in browser” on the soundcloud pod below to play …
a John Lennon original, live,
what else
Breaking Rappler
(News peg: The Securities and Exchange Commission today revoked the corporate certificate of Rappler on the ground that it violated the constitutional ban on foreign ownership of media organizations for getting investments from Omidyar of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, to boost its capital, and issuing “Philippine Depository Receipts” (PDRs, or certificates evidencing that money was provided) as instruments of investment of said company.)
The best of lawyers will tell Rappler to file an MR (motion for reconsideration) with the SEC, to get an injunction from the Supreme Court (on grounds of prior restraint: “any form of prior restraint comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption AGAINST its constitutional validity.” (New York Times vs. United States, etc.); failing which: To continue publishing Rappler and make sure the PDRs (investment instruments) are held by Filipino corporations or Filipino nationals, or if worse comes to worst: To publish Rappler using another personality – either another corporate personality or individual natural persons.
In other words, the best of lawyers can make Rappler continue publishing.
But how much are you willing to bend?
And how far are you willing to go to accommodate the whims of this regime?
If you let the new media overlords get away with this – who will be next in the chopping block?
ABS-CBN? — with any number PDRs it has issued or with its legislative franchise?
GMA News 7? — with its NTC permit to operate?
If all of us are willing to bend and willing to twist our torso to please the new media overseers – who else will be hauled over?
Twitter is foreign-owned, WordPress is foreign-owned, Google is foreign-owned — hell, any number of mediocre lawyers can argue that all Facebook users are operating on a foreign-owned platform.
How far are we willing to bend and when do we know we are already breaking?
