Duterte govt moves to cancel Philippines top broadcaster’s franchise

Philippine government lawyers moved on Monday to strip the nation’s biggest media group of its franchise in what campaigners branded another attack on press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte has repeatedly pledged to stop the broadcast operations of ABS-CBN and expressed anger over its reporting during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

A petition filed with the nation’s top court alleges ABS-CBN violated the restriction imposed by the constitution on foreign ownership of mass media by allowing overseas investors to join the company.

“We want to put an end to what we discovered to be highly abusive practices by ABS-CBN,” Solicitor-General Jose Calida said in a statement.