Manila, May 3 -- The Philippine media still lives up to its reputation as the "freest press" in Asia, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) said Friday.

PTFoMS Executive Director Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez made the statement to mark World Press Freedom Day, citing the vibrancy of Philippine media with more than 1,300 mainstream media outlets.

Citing July 2023 data from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the PTFoMS said the country currently has 753 radio stations (53 percent), 421 newspapers (30 percent) 162 television and cable stations (12 percent), and 73 magazines (5 percent).

This is on top of more than a thousand media companies distributing their content on social media platforms.

Gutierrez said the d...