Friday, August 08, 2008 Seares: PB’s right to reply and Renbor By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THE Cebu Provincial Board may have confused (a) the damage perceived in a Rene Borromeo news story in The Freeman with (b) the effect of the news reporter's failure to appear before the local legislative body.
Renbor as a journalist was duty-bound to correct the story's error and he did. He even apologized for it, a "mea culpa" that was publicized, as it became another story by itself, beyond the pages of Renbor's paper.
Renbor as an invitee of the board is not obliged to appear before it. The PB's right to reply doesn't include dragging the journalist before the board and making him explain his work.
I wrote here that the journalist is accountable to his editor and his readers. But the accounting is done internally for the editor and on the pages of the paper, not before a legislative body.
If an aggrieved person isn't satisfied by the paper's explanation in the paper, he can go to court for criminal libel or civil damages or, with or without a right-to-reply law, to demand space for his answer.
A board member talks about Renbor's disrespect to their august body. How can declining a request be a slur? Renbor sent his regrets and even said sorry. Few things can be more humiliating.
Bullying
The board member apparently thinks there is. And that's to summon Renbor so it can bully him just like how a House or Senate committee at times treats witnesses.
That's a different ball game up there. Senate and House committees can issue subpoena and when it uses the power, it is clearly on a matter of public interest.
Not about an error in the paper, which can be corrected in a succeeding issue.
