Press freedom not absolute — Palace

Malacañang warned media organizations yesterday that press freedom is not absolute and maintained that the government’s actions against its critics were meant to protect the state.

In a statement, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said "the principle of necessity and survival guides the actions of the state" in cracking down on what it perceives to be seditious news reporting.

"From the start, we have drawn the line between responsible reportage and the media being used as a propaganda tool of groups out to overthrow the democratic system," Bunye said.

"The freedom of the press, as well as all human freedoms for that matter, are not absolute but are circumscribed by the general welfare and the rule of law," he said.

Bunye issued the statement after the country’s major television networks, ABS-CBN and GMA-7, asked Congress on Thursday to repeal a provision in their franchises that allows the President to take over the stations under special circumstances.

During a hearing conducted by the Senate committees on justice and human rights and public services, representatives of the television networks urged Congress to repeal the provision in the wake of the state of national emergency declared by President Arroyo last month.

The provision referred to by the Senate committees and the networks pertains to the "right of government" section that applies to all television franchises granted by Congress.

Under Section 5 of the networks’ franchise agreement, the President is given the power to take over and operate television stations in times of rebellion, public peril, calamity, emergency, disaster or disturbance of peace and order.

Last Tuesday, several media groups, organizations and veteran journalists asked the Court of Appeals to stop the Arroyo administration from imposing censorship and prior restraint on the press.

The issue gained further controversy after ABS-CBN on Thursday disclosed to Congress that an unnamed Malacañang official had asked the network not to air a recent weekend standoff of the Philippine Marines.

Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor denied he was that official but admitted making a public appeal to the media not to make reports that might inflame the situation further.

"In fact in the United States, when there are situations, they even talk to the owners of the media," he said.

Defensor said he talked to ABS-CBN news executive Maria Ressa about the need for the government to stop the media from indirectly abetting the attempts to overthrow the government.

"Once there is a violent and armed takeover of the government we should all be helping each other and protecting the democratic state that we have," he said.

On Feb. 26, decorated combat veteran Col. Ariel Querubin led at least 100 armed troops in a defiant stand at the Marines headquarters at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City.

They were protesting the relief from his post of their commandant, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, who had apparently taken the heat for Querubin’s political actions.

Querubin was sacked as commander of a Marine brigade on Feb. 24 after telling his superior that he planned to lead his men, unarmed, to an opposition rally calling for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.

The standoff ended after hours of talks and the troops returned to barracks.

In their petition with the Court of Appeals, nine media organizations and veteran journalists said government pressure on the media remained although Mrs. Arroyo had already lifted the state of national emergency.

Only a court, "with its accompanying due process safeguards, may impose content-based prior restraints, when the grounds therefore are duly proved," they argued.

"The threat of official intervention — in the form of administrative sanction or criminal prosecution — is just as damaging to a free press as the fact of it," the journalists said in their 40-page joint petition.

"The dangers of unreviewable administrative actions imposing prior restraints on the press are as ancient as dictators."

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) chairman Ronald Solis were named respondents to the petition.

The petitioners said authorities "continue to threaten the press, directly or indirectly, that if they do not toe the line they will be administratively sanctioned or criminally prosecuted and respondents continue to impose content-based prior restraint in violation of the constitution and existing laws."

This is the first time since the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 that Philippine media has openly accused the government of putting press freedom under siege.

Mrs. Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017 on Feb. 24 declaring a state of national emergency, which ended last March 3, to foil a coup plot by disgruntled military officers, communist rebels and elements of the political opposition.

The declaration came on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the People Power revolt that toppled the brutal Marcos dictatorship.

In her proclamation, Mrs. Arroyo said the claims of the coup plotters "have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media."

Street protests were banned and security forces arrested several Arroyo opponents.

Police subsequently raided The Daily Tribune, a newspaper critical of Mrs. Arroyo, and troops were deployed around the country’s two largest TV networks, including broadcast giant ABS-CBN.

Lomibao warned that media organizations face a government takeover if they publish or air news reports that, in the judgment of the authorities, "exacerbate the instability of the country."

The NTC also reminded radio and TV stations of prohibitions on the broadcast of "rebellious, terrorist propaganda" and statements that "propose or incite treason, rebellion or sedition."

But Lomibao insisted that authorities were not imposing censorship.

The actions provoked a backlash as well as concern from the international community, including Washington.

Ressa, one of the court petitioners, said although the government did not take direct action against the press during the emergency, the threat remains.

"The threats have a lot of teeth," said Ressa, former CNN bureau chief in Indonesia. "Words are actions and the words to me send an alarming signal." — With Aurea Calica, Roel Pareño, Evelyn Macairan