Philippine lawmakers vote for shutdown of top broadcaster

ABS-CBN denied licence after repeatedly clashing with President Rodrigo Duterte

Lawmakers in the Philippines have voted against the renewal of a 25-year franchise for the nation's biggest broadcaster, ABS-CBN, ensuring a media conglomerate that has clashed with the country's firebrand president stays off the air indefinitely.

A legislative committee overwhelmingly supported a house working group's assessment that ABS-CBN was undeserving of the grant of legislative franchise", a decision likely to anger activists who say media freedom has come under sustained attack during the rule of President Rodrigo Duterte.