51% of Filipinos think it’s dangerous to publish anything critical about Duterte admin — SWS

MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-one percent of Filipinos think that it is dangerous to publish critical statements about the Duterte administration, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Friday showed.

The latest survey, which was conducted from July 3 to 6, showed that of the 51 percent, 23 percent of these say they “strongly agree” while 27 percent “somewhat agree” with the statement: “It is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration, even if it is the truth.”

Meanwhile, the remaining 30 percent of respondents disagree, meaning they do not think it is not dangerous to publish anything critical of the current administration.

The remaining 18 percent of respondents say that they were undecided about the statement.

The pollster said that the survey results showed a net agreement score of +21, classified by SWS as “moderate.”

This number showed a 10-point decrease compared with a +31 net agreement score, or “strong,” in June 2019 when SWS asked the same question.

It was in July when the House of Representatives’ Legislative Franchises Committee junked ABS-CBN’s bid for franchise renewal.

When SWS previously about the matter, the majority or 56 percent of Filipinos said that the ABS-CBN shutdown was a “major blow” to press freedom.

The research firm noted that the survey was done using a mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).

A total of 1,555 adult Filipinos (18 years old and above) nationwide participated in the survey. Of the total number of respondents, 306 are from the National Capital Region, 451 from Balance Luzon, 388 from the Visayas, and 410 from Mindanao.

SWS also said the survey has sampling error margins of ±2 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, and ±5 for Balance Luzon, ±5 percent Visayas and ±5 percent in Mindanao.

JPV