Nearly half of Filipinos believe it is “dangerous” to print or broadcast things critical of the administration, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The SWS survey, which was conducted from Dec. 10 to 14, 2022 and made public on Tuesday, May 9, revealed that 47 percent of adult Filipinos agreed (19 percent strongly agreed, 28 percent somewhat agreed), 27 percent undecided, and 26 percent disagreed (14 percent somewhat disagreed, 12 percent strongly disagreed) with the statement, “It is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration, even if it is the truth.”

“The resulting net agreement score of +20 (percent agree minus percent disagree, correctly rounded), classified by SWS as moderate, is four points below the moderate +24 (46 percent agree, 22 percent disagree) in December 2021,” SWS said.

The SWS terminology for net agreement is as follows: +50 and above, extremely strong; +30 to +49, very strong; +10 to +29, moderately strong; +9 to -9, neutral; -10 to -29, moderately weak; -30 to -49, very weak; -50 and below, extremely weak.

Fourth Quarter 2022 Social Weather Report (SWS)

Net agreement falls in Metro Manila, Visayas; rises in Mindanao

According to SWS, the net agreement on the danger of publishing anything critical of the administration was highest in Metro Manila (+28), followed by the Visayas (+23), Balance Luzon (+21), and Mindanao (+13).

Compared to December 2021, the net agreement score fell from strong to moderate in Metro Manila, down from +41 (59 percent agree, 18 percent disagree) to +28 (53 percent agree, 25 percent disagree).

It also fell from strong to moderate in the Visayas, from +36 (54 percent agree, 18 percent disagree) to +23 (47 percent agree, 25 percent disagree.

Meanwhile, it stayed moderate in Balance Luzon, from +23 (44 percent agree, 21 percent disagree) to +21 (46 percent agree, 26 percent disagree, correctly rounded).

However, it rose from neutral to moderate in Mindanao, from +7 (36 percent agree, 28 percent disagree, correctly rounded) to +13 (43 percent agree, 29 percent disagree, correctly rounded).

Net danger in publishing criticisms vs gov’t falls among college graduates

SWS also noted that net agreement that it is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration, even if it is the truth was at moderate levels of +24 among non-elementary graduates, +18 among elementary graduates, and +24 among junior high school graduates, compared to the neutral +4 among college graduates.

“Compared to December 2021, the net agreement score stayed moderate among non-elementary graduates, although up from +14 (40 percent agree, 26 percent disagree) to +24 (48 percent agree, 24 percent disagree),” SWS said.

It also stayed moderate among elementary graduates, although down from +24 (45 percent agree, 22 percent disagree, correctly rounded) to +18 (44 percent agree, 25 percent disagree, correctly rounded).

Likewise, it stayed moderate among junior high school graduates, hardly moving from +27 (48 percent agree, 22 percent disagree, correctly rounded) to +24 (49 percent agree, 25 percent disagree).

“However, it fell from moderate to neutral among college graduates, down from +27 (46 percent agree, 19 percent disagree) to +4 (37 percent agree, 34 percent disagree, correctly rounded),” SWS said.

The Fourth Quarter 2022 Social Weather Survey was conducted from Dec. 10 to 14, 2022, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

It has sampling error margins of +/-2.8 percent for national percentages and +/-5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.