By taking the nation’s the largest broad-caster of the air, the government of the Philippines is sending a “chilling message” on press freedom, according to one Philippine bishop.

ABS-CBN Corp. went off the air on May 5, after its franchise expired. The bills for its renewal had been languishing in Congress for four years.

Human rights activists not that the net-work was the strongest independent voice willing to stand up to populist President Rodrigo Duterte.

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos told Crux people “fear of what will happen next” to freedom of the press in the country, adding that “freedom of information and of speech are threatened.”

He said that the move sent a “chilling message that news and information outlets should toe the line of the current administration or they would suffer the same fate.”

Alminaza also condemned the timing of the closure, since ABS-CBN was one of the primary ways in which the people of the country was receiving information about the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The Philippines has had 10,463 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, with 696 recorded deaths, although the actual numbers are believed to be far higher. The country has been under lockdown since March 8.

“As one of our country’s major source of information, considered the largest and no. 1 network since 2019 and oldest station since 1946 with its other subsidiaries in social media, ABS-CBN has played an important role in informing and forming our people especially on health issues,” the bishop told Crux.

He added that the whole company, through its charitable foundation, is also “at the forefront in responding to every emergency situation in the country.”