Malacanang nixes foreign funding of PH media
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sun, 19 May 2019 09:55:35 +0000
Malacañang is opposed to the foreign funding of some media entities especially when such resources are supposedly used to “demonize” the government.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo voiced the Palace position on foreign-funded media organizations while defending the legality of the grants and other funds obtained by the government from other nations.
“Kontra tayo kapag nagbibigay doon sa media na ginagamit iyong pondo para sirain ang pamahalaan,” he said in a recent media interview at the Palace.
“Iyong mga pondo galing sa ibang foreign governments na grant, pabor sa pamahalaan at sa taumbayan iyon. But if a media outlet receives funding to demonize the government, siyempre ayaw natin iyon,” he said.
Some journalists have reportedly slammed the government’s alleged double standard that criticizes media groups for receiving foreign funds even as the government also accepts aid from other nations.
Foreign funding is not equivalent to foreign ownership of for-profit media, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism also reportedly said.
The PCIJ is among the groups recently implicated by the Palace in an alleged plot to discredit President Duterte by spreading videos that linked his family to the illegal drug trade. The group has denied the allegations.
Panelo, however, insisted that media companies must be fully owned by Filipinos amid a constitutional ban on foreign ownership in mass media.
The government accepting loans and grants from other countries, on the other hand, is not illegal, he added. (Genalyn Kabiling)