SWS: Higher agreement among those who think ABS-CBN franchise should have been renewed.

MANILA-- Half of Filipinos think it's dangerous to report anything critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration, results of a Social Weather Stations mobile poll released on Friday showed.

Fifty-one percent of Filipino adults agreed with the statement "it is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration, even if it is the truth," SWS said, equivalent to a +21 net agreement score.

Only 30 percent disagreed, while 18 percent were undecided.

Net agreement this year that reporting critically of Duterte's administration is dangerous was lower by 10 points at a moderate +21 compared to a strong +31 reported in June 2019, SWS said.

Those who strongly disagree rose to 17 percent from 8 percent last year, while those who somewhat disagree went to 14 percent from 12 percent.

The proportion of those who are undecided fell from 29 percent to 18 percent, SWS said.

Compared to the June 2019 poll, SWS said net agreement stayed strong in Mindanao and Visayas but fell in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon.

In Visayas and Mindanao, belief that critical reporting on the Duterte administration is dangerous inched to +26 and +28 respectively from +25 and +27.

Net agreement in Metro Manila however fell to +16 this year from +32 in June 2019. SWS said it also fell from strong to moderate in Balance Luzon, down from +34 in June 2019 to moderate +16 in July 2020.

The non-commissioned survey was conducted from July 3 to 6 using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing of 1,555 adult Filipinos nationwide and has a sampling error margin of ±2 percent for national percentages.

ON ABS-CBN FRANCHISE

Meanwhile, there was a stronger agreement to the idea that it is dangerous to report critically of Duterte's administration among those who agreed that the non-renewal of ABS-CBN's franchise was a major blow to press freedom at +33, SWS said.

The same poll also found that 3 out of 4 Filipinos believed that Congress should have granted ABS-CBN a new franchise.

Congress on July 10 denied the top Philippine broadcasting company a new franchise, in what was seen as a fulfillment of the President's previous threat to the company.

• SWS: 3 out of 4 Filipinos say Congress should renew ABS-CBN franchise

President Duterte has been known to threaten media companies that have been critical in their reporting of his leadership such as ABS-CBN, broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer, and news website Rappler.

news.abs-cbn.com is the official news website of ABS-CBN Corp.