Censored

In the digital / information age, you’d think censorship would become an anachronism, except in authoritarian states. But we all know this is not the case.

A system of classifying content is provided, to guide the public especially on materials used in movies and broadcasting. But scenes can still be cut and entire shows or movies suspended or banned. Vice Ganda can attest to this.

Even among certain social media giants, the fine print for setting up accounts includes rules against harmful content.

If the standards for film and TV program classification had been applied to those featuring Rodrigo Duterte and his rambling speeches during his presidency, they would have been rated R, or restricted.

Instead he was allowed to give full rein to his diatribes against his enemies and critics, his crude sex jokes and his endless cussing. In many public gatherings, the audience seemed to be genuinely entertained by his profanity-laced meandering speeches, laughing at the un-PC but old-school Pinoy jokes. A former US ambassador described Duterte’s sense of humor as “wicked.”

During the pandemic lockdowns, people had to endure Duterte’s regular stream-of-consciousness briefings to the nation liberally punctuated with “PI.” People stayed up till past midnight to find out which activities and livelihoods could resume, and how many people had died of COVID or been infected by SARS-CoV-2.

Six years of these unfettered harangues can spoil a person into believing that he can continue even after he has stepped down from power.

Duterte must be going through a rude reality check these days, along with his humorless daughter, who has lost with finality the annual half a billion in secret funds that she had enjoyed when her father was in power.

On the other hand, in this land of “weather-weather,” we should be wary of precedents being set in the administration’s moves to forcibly wash Rodrigo Duterte’s mouth with soap, and to deprive him of the only bully pulpit he has left after his social media accounts were shut down, the Sonshine Media Network International or SMNI.

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The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has suspended for two weeks the shows of Duterte and Lorraine Badoy, the pugnacious former spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict. The MTRCB invoked Presidential Decree 1986 issued by Ferdinand Marcos in October 1985, plus the implementing rules and regulations.

PD 1986 created the MTRCB, which replaced the Board of Review for Motion Pictures and Television, which in turn replaced the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures that was created through the post-war Republic Act 3060. And yes, the MTRCB is authorized under the implementing rules to suspend TV programs.

With PD 1986 remaining in force after the Marcos dictatorship was toppled in 1986, the MTRCB continued to act as censor, although most of the cases were over nudity and sexually explicit scenes. Among the movies banned were Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Lino Brocka’s Orapronobis (1989), Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) and Clint Eastwood’s Bridges of Madison County (1995).

The Marcos decree provides detailed criteria for content that can be censored, some of which are reasonable while others may be concerning for civil libertarians.

Crafted under an autocratic regime, the PD gives broad censorship powers to the MTRCB. These powers deserve to be challenged before the Supreme Court for infringement on rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Under the PD, censorship is based solely on the “judgment” of the MTRCB. “Contemporary Filipino values” are applied in classifying materials as “objectionable for being immoral, indecent, contrary to law and/or good customs, injurious to the Republic of the Philippines or its people, or with a dangerous tendency to encourage the commission of violence or a wrong or crime…”

Several offenses are specified, including sedition and rebellion, trafficking in pornography, contempt of court and violations of the sub judice rule.

Also specified are offenses that are “libelous or defamatory to the good name and reputation of any person, whether living or dead.” This provision does not differentiate between public officials and private individuals. It can be invoked in the case of Speaker Martin Romualdez, who reacted to insinuations – posed as a question in the SMNI program co-hosted by Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz – that he has a travel fund of P1.8 billion.

That insinuation earned several days of detention for Celiz at the House of Representatives, with Badoy included for “disrespecting” the congressmen who needled her and Celiz.

Yesterday, the National Telecommunications Commission jumped in with a 30-day suspension of SMNI itself.

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In the information age, people have grappled with balancing freedom of expression with the regulation of harmful content. Some argue that censoring certain types of materials is subjective and can be a slippery slope. Others argue that there are undeniably harmful materials that deserve to be suppressed.

“Harmful” can be clear-cut in the case of content that subjects children to sexual exploitation and abuse, promotes harassment or encourages armed, physical or sexual violence against a person, group or segment of society. Hate speech and articles have long been subjected to censorship even in democratic societies.

Social media giants such as Meta have also been cracking down on the deliberate spread of disinformation or bullying content including those emanating from a group of accounts behaving suspiciously – what is described as coordinated inauthentic behavior.

Even in this effort, however, there has been pushback, with some of those whose accounts were shut down or suspended decrying “censorship.”

Rodrigo Duterte has not commented on the recent moves against his favorite broadcasting network and the likely turnover of his favorite pastor, Apollo Quiboloy, to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

His daughter stayed in Davao during the brief period when she was designated government caretaker while BBM was in Tokyo. SMNI will reportedly appeal the MTRCB suspension.

In promoting civilized discourse, precedents are being set. If this is done arbitrarily, the precedent may one day be applied to those who are now rejoicing over the Dutertes, Badoy, Celiz and SMNI getting their comeuppance. Remember the admonition to be careful what you wish for.