204 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, Second Edition CHAPTER SEVEN Truth Telling and other Perils in “Democratic” Philippines Luis V. Teodoro The Philippine Media System THE TYPES of mass media in the Philippines are print (tabloids and broadsheets), electronic (television and radio), moving pictures, and digital news websites and blogs. Some media organizations are government-owned (e.g. PTV-4 television) and/or controlled while the rest are mostly owned by big businesses. Some media companies are owned by community entrepreneurs in the provinces (Media Times 2013:90-157). The claim that the Philippine press is free is usually based on what is perceived to be a fairly liberal legal environment. Freedom of expression and press freedom are explicitly protected by the Philippine Constitution of 1987 in Article III, Section 4: “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.” This provision is supported by a number of lesser laws and decisions of the Philippine Supreme Court. The Philippines is also bound by a number of international covenants to which it is a signatory, among them the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Teodoro and Kabatay 2006). Unlike in many other countries, there is no body of laws in the Philippines that may be called Media Laws. Instead certain laws apply to the mass media as well as to other groups and persons. There is also a substantial body of jurisprudence, part of the law of the land, which upholds, limits, modies and otherwise interprets the constitutional provisions related to freedom of speech and press (Article III) or otherwise affecting the media and freedom of expression such as Article IX