Manila, Philippines – ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), the news channel arm of PH media conglomerate ABS-CBN, has announced that it is canceling its partnership with Chinatown News TV, a Filipino-owned media news channel broadcast in Chinese and made by the Filipino-Chinese community in the country. This was shortly after the parties announced the tie-up.

The cancellation comes after the network received backlash from the online community, pointing to the irony of establishing a Chinese broadcast in the news channel despite growing tensions between the Philippines and China regarding vessels of the latter that are currently lingering and taking space in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

ABS-CBN has recently covered the West Philippine Sea issue with one of its journalists, Chiara Zambrano, visiting the highly-contested area along with the ABS-CBN team before being chased down by the Chinese Coast Guard.

Ging Reyes, news chief at ABS-CBN, initially defended the partnership, stating that ABS-CBN had editorial control over their content, providing national news stories and ensuring accuracy of the translation from Mandarin to English subtitles.

“ABS-CBN News has vigorously covered these issues, in our pursuit of truth and public enlightenment. But we resist discrimination against any race. or ethnicity. The airing on ANC of Chinatown News should not be equated with the intrusions in the West PH Sea. Chinatown News is produced by fellow Filipinos who belong to the Filipino-Chinese community. They are part of Philippine society,” Reyes said in her Twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/gingreyes/status/1382329397311537152
https://twitter.com/gingreyes/status/1382329401782669315

Despite the defense, many netizens have opposed the partnership.

The Philippine arm of online democratic solidarity movement Milk Tea Alliance stated that Chinatown News TV is also responsible for the controversial music video ‘Iisang Dagat’ (‘One Sea’) co-produced with the Chinese Embassy to the Philippines, as well as spreading media lies about the persecution of Uyghur Muslim minorities in Mainland China.

https://twitter.com/mta_PH/status/1382360780025176067

TV writer and producer Erwin Aurella tweeted that a ‘Chinese propaganda’ video disguised as a ‘Chinese news program’ doesn’t speak to ABS-CBN’s motto of ‘In The Service of the Filipino People’.

https://twitter.com/erwinaurella/status/1382339112812867584

In line with the partnership, netizens took to Twitter and mocked the station using the hashtag #ABSCBNTutaNgChina, alluding to the network being a ‘puppy’ of Chinese propaganda.

Controversially, Chinatown News TV also aimed to promote the ‘One Belt, One Road’, a global infrastructure development strategy by the Chinese Communist Party, the sole governing party of the People’s Republic of China.

Manila, Philippines – Netizens on Tuesday Morning complained about the inaccessibility of the Philippine broadcasting giant’s two YouTube news channels – ABS-CBN News and ANC 24/7.

In a screenshot by Rappler, a message is displayed on previously posted videos of both channels which read, “The video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated”.

The network has already released a statement, saying that they are “aware of the problem.”

“We are currently investigating this and working closely with YouTube to resolve the problem,” said the network.

The network also urged its audiences to turn to its radio channel TeleRadyo’s YouTube channel for the meantime in order to receive news live streams and reports.

According to parent firm Google, termination of a YouTube account could result from several reasons such as repeated violations of its community guidelines and terms of service, a single case of severe abuse such as predatory behavior, spam, or pornography, and when an account delivers any content that violates YouTube’s policies such as hate speech, harassment, or impersonation. It is also possible for accounts to be mistakenly flagged, with Google allowing accounts to submit an appeal.

Google also explained on its guidelines, “If your channel or account is terminated, you may be unable to use, own, or create any other YouTube channels/accounts.”

This isn’t the first time the network has encountered a problem in its digital news avenue following its franchise denial in July. In September, its news website news.abs-cbn.com has also been temporarily inaccessible.

In the latest development, the network has announced Tuesday evening that its news channels on YouTube are now up and running.

“After working closely with YouTube, the ABS-CBN News and ANC 24/7 channels have been restored at 3:58 p.m. today,” it said in a statement.

It revealed that the temporary suspension was due to a hacking incident. The network said it will continue its investigation to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.