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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
GMA-7 says KBP decision on Mike Enriquez erroneous
GMA Network, speaking in behalf of its affiliate RGMA, said the sanction imposed by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) upon broadcaster Mike Enriquez for alleged "personal attacks against fellow broadcasters and other stations" is both erroneous and unfair.
GMA Corporate Communications Head Butch Raquel said Enriquez should not have been penalized for merely defending GMA-7 by reacting to statements on the charges first made by ABS-CBN. "Mike (Enriquez) was just quoting from pleadings of various cases filed by GMA-7 against ABS-CBN. There was no personal element in his statements," Raquel said.
The KBP Standards Authority reprimanded Enriquez for allegedly violating program standards when he merely reacted to statements made by ABS-CBN in reference to the cases filed by GMA-7 against Sky Cable and Home Cable last May 2003 over radio station dzBB.. Under the same KBP rule, ABS should have been investigated for criticizing GMA-7 as "desperate."
According to the KBP Standards Authority’s decision itself, ABS-CBN said GMA-7’s filing of various cases against Lopez-owned cable company, Sky Cable, in the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the court was a result of GMA’s "desperation" since it could not beat ABS-CBN in ratings.
Enriquez was also penalized for his radio comments on ABS-CBN’s alleged "personal interests" in politics.
"Mike (Enriquez) was just defending GMA-7 from the quoted statements made by ABS-CBN. He had the right to reply to those charges," Raquel said.
GMA Network OIC for Legal Affairs and counsel for Mike Enriquez Roberto Rafael Lucila, on the other hand, condemned the decision of the KBP because "it smacks of censorship in blatant violation of the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression."
"What the KBP has stated in its decision is patently unconstitutional. It seeks to gag members of the broadcast industry from expressing their views on matters of public interest such as the issues raised by GMA Network against ABS-CBN, Sky Cable, Home Cable, and Pilipino Cable before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City, and before the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)," Lucila said.
Lucila also said the KBP’s decision to penalize Enriquez for his statement is "disturbing and a matter of serious public concern."
"In effect, KBP tasked not only Mike Enriquez, but all the other broadcast practitioners to be silent on the issues against ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries and affiliates notably Sky Cable, Pilipino Cable, Beyond Cable, Meralco, Bayantel, Maynilad, First Phil. Gas, and a host of other companies where the owners of Benpres Holdings Corporation have substantial interest," Lucila explained.
"KBP’s decision effectively curtails and prohibits, under pain of penalty, any TV and radio discussion on issues affecting the basic needs of the public such as water, telecommunication services, mass media, road networks, power, gas, and others. To be sure, this is not only immoral but illegal," Lucila added.
GMA will address the KBP decision through the proper legal action and, if need be, will raise the matter to the court.
GMA Network sees the KBP ruling against Enriquez as another example of the broadcast organization’s bias and discriminatory application of its rules towards other members.
"GMA-7 believes that the KBP has been biased towards other members in many occasions," Raquel said.
Raquel recalled the one-year suspension on member privileges imposed by the KBP upon GMA-7 last year based on violations found by its Standards Authority to have allegedly been committed by Rosanna Roces.
"They (KBP-SA) imposed the sanction upon GMA-7 when in contrast, ABS-CBN was not even investigated by the KBP for the admitted, published and repeated similar violations of the TV code by Willie Revillame and other former hosts of their noontime show," Raquel said.
The KBP also investigated GMA Network for alleged commercial overloading last year, which GMA-7 claimed was selective and discriminatory.
"The ‘overloading rule’ was rarely imposed when the other network was openly violating it for so long in the past. Then all of a sudden, they began imposing it when GMA’s advertising load experienced significant growth," Raquel explained. "These instances, as well as the ruling on Mike’s case would show that the KBP failed to monitor and impose sanctions against other groups who have committed the same or even worse violations," he added.
GMA Network withdrew its membership from the KBP on September 01, 2003, citing the broadcast organization’s discrimination against GMA Network and its irrelevance in current media practice and under present circumstances as the main reasons for GMA’s decision to pull out from the group.
(March 24, 2004 issue)
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