Remembering, never forgetting

"I will always make you remember," was a famous line Caroline Tiu kept on repeating to her family for the injustice done to her murdered mother in the Filipino TV series "Can't Buy Me Love". Tiu, who believes her mother was killed by another person, always wants the people around her to remember that fateful night. I resonate with the character very well by always making people remember certain events in our history that changed our lives forever.

Last May 5 was the fourth-year anniversary when the solicitor-general issued a cease and desist order to media giant ABS-CBN for a failure to secure a fresh franchise from the Congress. The order prompted the network's executive to shut down its operations on the same day. That was the day when television screens went black and the media landscape changed forever. Today, the network looks for ways to innovate their products. It has evolved into a content provider instead of being a network on its own; a far cry than it was before.

This has changed the Philippine media landscape in the past years. Most media outlets tamed down their reporting and chose a safer way of telling what was really going on. The audience became fragmented and scattered. The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas reported that they are having a hard time tracking down television viewers as most of them have moved from programming to streaming on demand. Long newscasts are only consumed by a few while short reports and clips are favored by the younger generation.

The displaced employees have already moved on. A number of them are working at the local government offices as public information officers, a kind of brand that was only once available on free television. Others have started their small businesses from the retrenchment fund and many also entered new industries. A few remained to work on a per-story basis, a kind that gives them uncertainty of their work being done.

It is important that we remember what happened four years ago because it left a dark scar in our democracy. Experts say that the soul of a democratic country is its free press. However, what transpired was an indication that a state force can clamp down on your freedom despite being compliant on all terms. This is hugely different from other media institutions that are facing challenges before Congress today. Government agencies invited to the hearings said there were no violations; it was clearly an attack.

I have also moved on. The sight of the date on my calendar is not as painful as it was before. I can talk about the situation without tears welling up in my eyes and feeling a pinch in my heart. Yet, I will not ever forget that date in history. I will live to tell the tale that we once had an administration that used baseless accusations to refuse a network their right to a new franchise --and that changed Philippine media forever.