Tuesday, December 18, 2007
CCPC opposes legislated right to reply
THE Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) opposes the House and Senate bills that would legislate and criminalize the right to reply in media.
In a resolution adopted during its last quarterly en banc meeting for this year, held at the MBF Cebu Press Center last Friday, CCPC expresses “vigorous opposition to pending proposals to legislate and criminalize the right to reply” in media as they “infringe on press freedom and are unnecessary, impractical, and open to abuse.”
Vice president Sabino Dapat, in the absence of president Pureza Ońate who was ill, led the meeting of media and non-media members.
Approved with the resolution was a position paper adopted earlier by print and broadcast editors and members of the Cebu Media Legal Aid (Cemla) who discussed the issue at Cebu City Marriott Hotel last Dec. 5.
The position paper details the arguments against compulsory access to media. (The resolution is published below.)
CCPC emphasizes that journalists already practice the right to reply “as part of the individual and corporate standards and the accountability of news outlets to their public.”
What they oppose, CCPC says, is the compulsion under pain of fine and/or imprisonment.
The compulsion violates the press freedom clause of the Constitution as it constitutes prior restraint, which intrudes into editors’ choice of newspaper and broadcast content.
Whatever omissions and lapses of media in the practice of right to reply are being corrected by the press’ own mechanisms, including in-house codes of standards and ethics and citizens-press organizations such as the Philippine Press Council and the Cebu Citizens-Press Council, which specifically mention the right to reply as ground for grievance.
CCPC says it is convinced that the core of press freedom is the right of journalists “to choose what to publish and what not to publish,” restrained only by existing laws against libel, obscenity, sedition, and violations of national security, and industry rules and standards.
At the CCPC meeting, editors argued that what well-meaning lawmakers plan to correct perceived failings of the press will do more harm than good.
In the same meeting, Cherry Ann T. Lim, assistant to CCPC acting executive director Pachico A. Seares, reported the achievements of the press council for the past two years.
The report, along with other council documents and updates on activities, can be read on CCPC’s website at www.cebucitizenspresscouncil.org.
The lunch meeting was hosted by The Freeman, Banat News, Cebu Daily News, KBP Cebu, and Sun.Star Cebu.
'Unconstitutional, unnecessary, impractical, open to abuse'
BELIEVING that a free press protects press freedom and all other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, including the democratic way of life itself;
CONVINCED that the core of press freedom is the right of journalists to choose what to publish and what not to publish, restrained only by laws against libel, obscenity, sedition, and violations of national security, and industry rules and standards;
RE-AFFIRMING well-established principles against prior restraint which protect journalists against intrusion into the choice of newspaper or broadcast content;
EMPHASIZING the fact that (a) journalists already practice the right to reply as part of individual and corporate standards and the news outlets’ accountability to their public and audience and (b) what journalists oppose is legislating and criminalizing the right to reply;
POINTING OUT that whatever lapses of journalists under the right to reply are being corrected by the press’ own mechanisms, such as in-house codes of standards and ethics and citizens-press organizations, such as the Cebu Citizens-Press Council whose code of procedure specifically mentions the right to reply as ground for a complaint or grievance with the council;
ALARMED by the threat of compulsory access to media proposed in bills pending before the Senate and the House of Representatives,
NOW THEREFORE, the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC), composed of media and non-media members, in its last quarterly meeting for the year 2007 at the MBF Cebu Press Center, hereby:
Expresses its vigorous opposition to pending proposals to legislate and criminalize the right to reply, as it infringes on press freedom and is unnecessary, impractical, and open to abuse;
Adopts the position paper prepared by newspaper and broadcast editors and lawyer-members of Cebu Media Legal Aid (Cemla), who discussed the issue last Dec. 5, 2007 at Cebu City Marriott Hotel, and formally makes it a part of this resolution; and
Encourages concerned civic and church groups and the academe to join the outcry of journalists against compulsory access to media under pain of fine and imprisonment.
APPROVED this 14th day of December, 2007 at the MBF Cebu Press Center in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (December 18, 2007 issue)
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