SMNI was not allowed to cover inside the Batasang Pambansa for the 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Bongbong Marcos.
According to the network’s consultant, veteran newsman Jay Sonza, the accreditation of the network’s technical team was not approved.
There was also no spot allocated for SMNI in the north wing lobby of the Batasang Complex, where various news organizations set up their broadcast equipment to cover the arrival of VIPs on the red carpet leading to the plenary of the House of Representatives.
“The problem is, they don’t want to give accreditation to our technical and logistical support team. They said, ‘Why do we need to go live, it’s just social media?’ That’s so stupid, really dumb. Even on social media, New Media, or mainstream media, you can’t go live without technicians, without engineers,” Jay Sonza, SMNI Consultant stated.
As part of its public affairs function, SMNI prepares for the annual SONA of the President.
Every year, the network, along with other news organizations, sets up at the House to cover the SONA.
However, this year is different because a bill was passed in the House to nullify the franchise law of SMNI.
The House also serves as the basis for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to impose an indefinite suspension on the network, which is still in effect.
Such actions taken against SMNI stemmed from a question posed by one of its program anchors, Jeffrey ‘Ka Eric’ Celiz, about whether the travel funds of the Office of the Speaker reached P1.8 billion last year.
“Anyway, we won’t insist on it anymore. Just so people know — because some might say, ‘Oh look, SMNI is mad at Marcos, they didn’t go live.’ Right? So, we’re clarifying this now. Just so you know, even if we wanted to, to be fair, they disapproved the accreditation of our technical team by Malacañang and the office of the Speaker. We cannot go live directly from the Batasan complex. Thank you,” Sonza ended.
