Manila Times

Definition

The Manila Times, founded on October 11, 1898, is the oldest existing English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in the immediate aftermath of the American takeover of Manila, it has chronicled every era of modern Philippine history — surviving war, dictatorship, closure, and repeated changes of ownership.

Identities (Wikipedia/Wikidata/DBpedia)

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manila_Times
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1573100
DBpedia: N/A

Also Known As

The Manila Times; Manila Times.

Examples and Analogies

In Philippine journalism, the Manila Times plays the role of the industry’s living fossil and conscience: like The New York Times in its national setting, its name is so generic it claims the whole city — and its history, including its silencing by martial law, is a barometer of press freedom in the country.

Usage Scenarios

The paper operates as a daily broadsheet and news website covering politics, business, and opinion, and it functions in historical scholarship as a primary source: its 1898 founding copy documents the transition from Spanish to American rule, its pre-1972 run records the republic’s early decades, and its post-1986 rebirth charts the rehabilitation of the press after dictatorship.

Strategies

The Times’ editorial strategy has swung with its owners — from the American-era commercial paper of founder Thomas Gowan, through decades as a pillar of the so-called “establishment press,” to its present-day positioning as an independent broadsheet combining news reportage with strong opinion columns and heritage branding as the country’s oldest English daily.

Security and Safety Measures

Press-freedom safeguards define the paper’s modern operations: editorial independence from political patrons, legal defense against libel suits used to silence coverage, and physical security for journalists — concerns sharpened by the paper’s own history of closure under martial law and by the killing of journalists in the Philippines, one of the world’s most dangerous beats.

Historical Context

The Times was founded by an Englishman, Thomas Gowan, months after American forces took Manila in 1898, initially serving the colonial and merchant community. It grew into a leading prewar daily, was closed with the rest of the free press when Japan occupied the country in 1942, resumed after liberation, and was again shuttered on the declaration of martial law in 1972. After the EDSA Revolution it returned to the streets, and in 1999 it made international headlines when a presidential libel complaint over a story implicating the Estrada administration forced an apology, change of ownership, and temporary closure. Relaunched in 2001 under a group led by Dante Ang, it continues publishing today.

Challenges and Controversies

The paper’s later history is a case study in press-freedom pressures: the 1972 shutdown, the contested 1999 “corporate rape” story and the apology critics called capitulation, and ongoing challenges of survival in a shrinking print market dominated by broadcast and digital platforms — alongside the general hazards that come with reporting on Philippine politics.