Some 51 percent of those surveyed said that it is dangerous to broadcast or print anything critical to the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showed.
According to the SWS poll, taken last July 3 to 6, of the 51 percent who agree with the said statement, 23 percent strongly agree with the other 27 percent somewhat agreeing.
On the other hand, 30 percent of those surveyed disagreed that it is dangerous to publish or print reports critical of the Duterte Administration, the SWS said.
Of the 30 percent who disagreed, 14 percent somewhat disagreed while 17 percent strongly disagreed.
Meanwhile, 18 percent were undecided on the issue.
The SWS poll was conducted on 1,555 adult Filipinos aged 18 and above nationwide using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing.
Of the over 1,500 respondents, 306 were from the National Capital Region, 451 in Balance Luzon, 388 in the Visayas, and 410 in Mindanao.
The survey had a sampling error margin of ±2 percent for national percentages; ±6 percent for Metro Manila; and ±5 percent for Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The results of the SWS poll came almost a month after the House Committee on Legislative Franchises panel rejected the franchise application of broadcast network ABS-CBN via a 70-11 vote.
The application was rejected even after government the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared ABS-CBN of violations during House panel hearings.
In December 2019, President Duterte said that he will see to it by the following year that ABS-CBN is out of business.
Since the House panel rejected ABS-CBN’s franchise application, Duterte has accused ABS-CBN owners of being oligarchs who control the elections, if not the economy of the country./Stacy Ang
