‘No’ To The Dark Days

After PP 1017, journalists take battle to court
‘No’ To The Dark Days
By Hector Bryant L. Macale and Nathan J. Lee

PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION 1017 may have already been lifted, but the battle for press freedom continues.

Following recent pronouncements by senior government officials seeking to impose restrictions on the press, several media organizations and journalists around the country filed a petition before the Court of Appeals on March 8 asserting media’s constitutionally protected rights against any government censorship or prior restraint.

The petition asserts that executive officials “have no lawful power, authority or jurisdiction to prohibit the publication or airing of news or commentary based upon its contents.” The petition states that it is only a court and not any executive agency that has the right to impose restrictions on media content.

Named respondents were Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Arturo Lomibao and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) chair Ronald Solis.

The petition seeks to prohibit the respondents “from imposing any form of content-based prior restraint on the press, be it formal or informal, direct or in the form of disguised or thinly veiled threats of administrative sanction or criminal prosecution.” It states: “The threat of official interven-tion—in the form of administra-tive sanction or criminal prosecution—is just as damaging to a free press as the fact of it.”

Since PP 1017 was issued, Arroyo’s officials such as Gonzalez and Lomibao have told media that the government is monitoring some journalists and that guidelines would be issued to journalists.

The petitioners also want the court to set aside the NTC issuances prohibiting the broadcast press from airing news and commenta-ries that are “subversive,” which “tend” to propose or incite sedition or rebellion, or which constitute “rebellious/terrorist propaganda, comments, information, inter-views and other similar or related materials.” The petition argues that NTC does not have the power, authority, or jurisdiction to prohibit or even merely judge these.

Challenging the assumption that the petition would no longer hold water following the lifting of PP 1017, the petitioners said that the petition does not hinge on the state of national emergency. Hence, the petitioners say, the lifting of PP 1017 does not affect the nature and objectives of the petition.

Moreover, as told by Sheila Coronel, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), to PJR Reports, “The lifting of the proclamation did not mean the lifting of NTC guidelines on the broadcast media. In fact the KBP issued a new directive on March 3, the same day the proclamation was lifted. These directives are intended to cause a chilling effect on broadcasters. With these directives and circulars still in force, the petition is not moot and academic.” (NTC and KBP officials later said the directives were merely a reiteration of the guidelines previously drawn up by the KBP.)

Among the media organiza-tions that signed the petition were the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), Center for Community Journalism and Development, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), PCIJ, Philippine Press Institute (PPI), and Newsbreak magazine. Institutions likewise signed in, such as the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

Uncanny similarities
The decision to file a petition was made after media practitioners twice met with the Free Legal Aid Group (FLAG) following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s issuance of PP 1017 last Feb. 24, putting the country under a “state of national emergency.”

Arroyo declared PP 1017 to quell alleged rebellion attempts against her administration. The press, among other sectors, however quickly pointed out the uncanny similarities between PP 1017 and Proclamation 1081, which was issued by the late president Ferdinand Marcos on Sept. 21, 1972, to put the country under martial law.

Ironically, on the date that PP 1017 was issued, Filipinos were commemorating the 20th anniver-sary of Edsa 1 which overthrew the Marcos dictatorship. Before he was ousted in Edsa 1, Marcos was ruling the country for 14 years.

As a result of PP 1017, several personalities and military officials allegedly linked to the recent coup attempts have been arrested.

In her proclamation, Arroyo said that some elements of the media have been “recklessly” promoting the cause of those who want to overthrow her administration. The president has been under fire from other govern-ment officials, various civil society organizations, and the media since July last year, when controversial tapes of her conversations with an elections commissioner were made public, leading to charges of fraud in the elections of 2004.

Clampdown
Several other newspapers, current affairs television and radio programs, and writer-columnists were put under surveillance during the week-long duration of PP 1017.

On the same day that PP 1017 was issued, columnists Randy David of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Argee Guevarra of the BusinessWorld were held by the police for allegedly inciting sedition and leading several hundreds of protesters in Edsa. Guevarra was also the legal counsel of Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, one of the two top military officials charged with planning to lead a coup. On the same day, the radio program Ngayon na, Bayan! was suspended by DZRJ management.

On Feb. 25, the police raided The Daily Tribune, a newspaper that was critical of the Arroyo administration. The police got mock-up copies, news reports, and photos from the publication’s editorial offices, following orders to secure the offices “because it was a possible source of destabilization materials.” Law enforcers had since staked in and out of Tribune’s offices to “secure” the anti-Arroyo publication. They left Tribune’s premises more than an hour after Arroyo lifted PP 1017 on March 3.

Following the raid on the Tribune, there have been reports that another pro-opposition newspaper, Malaya, and its sister publication, the popular tabloid Abante, were also being monitored by the government. At the same time, military soldiers had surrounded commercial stations ABS-CBN 2 and GMA-7 as well as the government stations “to protect” these media establishments in the event that lawless elements tried to take control of them.

On the same day that police raided the Tribune, Lomibao warned that more actions would be taken against media, and that certain guidelines would be issued to ensure the local press’ cooperation with the govern-ment in its fight against alleged destabilization attempts. Lomi-bao warned that the police will take over news groups that will not conform to “standards set by the government.” This is in accordance with General Order no. 5 directing the Armed Forces of the Philippines and PNP to maintain “peace and order and prevent and suppress lawless violence.”

General Order no. 5 again
As implied by GO 5, reports or publications that hurt the government by “obstructing governance including hindering the growth of the economy and sabotaging the people’s confidence in government” will be subjected to review and possible prohibition, according to Lomibao. GO 5 was made in pursuant to PP 1017, calling upon the military and police to take direct control of the peace and order in the country.  During martial law, Marcos had issued a similar General Order no. 5.

Lomibao said police will implement standards for media and that a group of investigators and prosecutors will monitor the news.

In a move that showed it was not only the Manila-based press that was being targeted by the orders from Malacañang, Gonzalez in a radio interview on March 2 said that the government was also monitoring media organizations in the provinces. He singled out Iloilo-based papers Panay News and The Daily Informer—two newspapers that had reportedly been critical of Gonzalez while he was still a congressman—for allegedly publishing “negative informa-tion and seditious statements about the government.”

Media immediately con-demned the government’s efforts to stifle and control the press. On Feb. 24, the NUJP urged journalists all over the country “not to be cowed by threats, open or veiled, seeking to scare us from boldly performing our jobs as we must.”

“When unrest and confusion reigns, as is happening at the moment, it becomes ever more vital for the people and members of the media to jealously protect the freedom of expression,” the NUJP said, adding, “Such is the lesson learned bitterly under the past brutal dictatorship whose downfall, ironically, Filipinos commemorate today.”

In its Feb. 27 editorial, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said: “If more proof were needed, the raid on the opposition The Daily Tribune, the posting of soldiers outside the two giant television networks, the declaration by the chief of the Philippine National Police that the government will take over media institutions that do not follow new ‘standards’—all these tell us that containment of anti-Arroyo stories is one objective of the state of national emergency.”  The newspaper called PP 1017 a “declaration of war on the Bill of Rights.”

“You cannot have freedom of the press if you curtail that freedom. There is no middle ground. You either have a free press or you don’t,” said Maria Ressa in a BusinessMirror report. Ressa, who is ABS-CBN vice president for news and public affairs and former CNN bureau chief in Jakarta, said the issuance of PP 1017 creates a “chilling effect” on the media. “And that may be its intended purpose,” she said.

‘A big joke’
Although admitting that the Tribune has been “nothing less than a pain in the neck for the administration” and that it doesn’t like the Tribune’s “editorializing the news,” The Manila Times said the raid was uncalled for.

“If they overstep the legally allowable bounds, there are libel laws to make them correct their errors,” the paper’s Feb. 26 editorial said.

The provincial press also blasted PP 1017. “They’re making a big joke out of the constitutional rights of the people,” said Davao-based journalist Nelson Cañete of radio station DXGO.

Iloilo journalists signed a statement on Feb. 26 saying that “as journalists and citizens, we uphold and safeguard the constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of press and expression. The government cannot just stifle these basic rights of the people, no matter what the condition, crisis or circumstance present in our midst.”

Journalists and media organizations around the country organized protest actions and discussions on the media crackdown as a result of PP 1017.

International press freedom organizations likewise criticized the clampdown on media. “Amid allegations that the Philippine president is either overreacting to, or overstating, an alleged threat to the state, it is imperative that Philippine journalists be allowed to do their job without fear of reprisals from the military and/or govern-ment,” said the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a Bangkok-based alliance of free press advocacy groups around the region. Its members include CMFR and PCIJ.

The Paris-based press free-dom watchdog Reporters With-out Borders and International Federation of Journalists likewise voiced their concern.

Warning
With the rescinding of Arroyo’s proclamation, NUJP called on Arroyo to  “catego-rically announce that govern-ment will respect the people’s constitutional right to a free press.”

The group also called for Lomibao to “withdraw all the threats he has earlier made on media institutions” and that policemen deployed in media organizations be recalled. NTC issuances “controlling the broadcast of news and media affairs” should also be with-drawn, NUJP said.

NUJP added that programs that were suspended in con-nection with the proclamation, specifically Diyos at Bayan (QTV) of evangelist Eddie Villanueva, and Ngayon na, Bayan of DZRJ, should be restored.

With the lifting of PP 1017, the PNP and other government authorities said they were no longer keen on setting media guidelines but were instead strongly recommending “self-restraint” on the press. But media noted that attempts to restrict coverage still continued.

Vergel O. Santos, CMFR’s board chair who signed the petition on CMFR’s behalf, wrote in BusinessWorld last March 6: “When Gloria Macapagal Arroyo withdrew Presidential Procla-mation 1017 on Friday, only the number went away; the suppressive spirit that drove the proclamation has stayed.”

Just hours after Arroyo lifted the state of national emergency, the justice department announced that charges would be filed against Niñez Cacho-Olivares, editor-publisher of the Tribune, and two of her paper’s columnists, Ike Señeres and Herman Tiu-Laurel. The three were charged with “inciting to sedition.”

As if to confirm fears that PP 1017 has been rescinded only in words, Gonzalez warned on March 4 that the media would continue to be watched.

“Under the Revised Penal Code, even if there is no Proclamation 1017, there is a law on rebellion, there is a law on sedition, there is a law on libel,” Gonzalez told the Inquirer, justifying the government’s continued surveillance of media. In fact, Gonzalez said, the DOJ is already monitoring other media practitioners for possible charges. He also said the DOJ was  reviewing ABS-CBN’s coverage of the Feb. 26 standoff at the Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio.

If there was one thing that the justice secretary learned from the short-lived emergency rule, Gonzalez said in a report in GMA-7 news website, it was that even the “most rebellious media were intimidated by the proclamation (and as a result) had begun to reexamine their policies.”

On March 8, the journalists hit back by filing the petition.

As Coronel said, “We cannot let down our guard. We feel there are enough safeguards in the law to protect the state and to protect individuals from media excesses.

“No new restrictions are needed. Our constitution guarantees a free and unrestricted press. Any infringement on this constitutional right must be opposed, even if newspapers are not closed down or broadcast networks are not shuttered,” she said.

The battle rages on.

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