SupPRESSed: The Philippine media under the Estrada regime
March 1, 2001OUSTED President Joseph Estrada during his brief term of office waged war not only against the Muslims but also against press freedom in the Philippines. By the time he was impeached, it seemed he was winning.
First victims
One of Estrada’s first directives once in office in 1998 was for the Philippine National Police to conduct an all-out campaign against pornography. Then concurrent President and Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, Estrada ordered the PNP to confiscate and publicly burn copies of tabloids that contained sexually suggestive materials–among them Bulgar, Tiktik, Aliwan, Sariwa, Barako, and Init. Continue reading SupPRESSed: The Philippine media under the Estrada regime…
People Power II underscored issues of new media access
March 1, 2001by Ederic Peñaflor Eder
“Erap wil go dwn n hs2ry as d presdnt oustd by txt. Congrats & mbuhay tyong lhat!”
After the ouster of Joseph Estrada, this was one of the messages circulated by young cellular phone users through the short messaging service (SMS).
Text messages and the Internet played important roles in the completion of the people’s struggle for the ouster of an incompetent and allegedly corrupt president. Right after the 10-11 vote on the opening of the second set of PCI-Equitable Bank evidence against Estrada in the aborted impeachment trial, thousands of messages began circulating among cellular phone users in the Philippines. Continue reading People Power II underscored issues of new media access…
