CA asked: Stop media gag

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

Although President Arroyo lifted the state of national emergency last Friday, government pressure on the media — particularly radio and television — remained and moves against the media could have a lasting chilling effect, the journalists said.

Only a court, "with its accompanying due process safeguards, may impose content-based prior restraints, when the grounds therefore are duly proved," the groups 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 as respondents to the petition.

Ermita welcomed the legal challenge. "Well, that’s good. We have courts to decide on that, so let’s wait for the decision of the courts. That’s the beauty of democracy," he said.

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 have openly accused the government of placing free speech under siege.

Mrs. Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017 on Feb. 24 and declared a weeklong emergency, which ended last Friday, 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 EDSA I 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 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."

The actions provoked a backlash as well as concern from the international community, including Washington. The Senate, which was largely critical of Proclamation 1017, will start an inquiry today on the police raid on the Tribune.

Ermita maintained that the government action on the Tribune was a far cry from what he himself carried out in the crackdown on the press during the martial law era, when he was then head of the Armed Forces Civil Relations Service.

Files and machines were carted away and journalists and publishers arrested when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972, said Ermita, who turned against Marcos in 1986.

"That was a raid, but in the case (of the Tribune), they did not arrest anybody. They were just reminded (about) Proclamation 1017 and the laws on sedition, but everybody looked at it as a raid," he said.

Maria Ressa, head of the news division of ABS-CBN and one of the court petitioners, said although the government did not take direct action against the press during the emergency, the threat still 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."

Despite the government warnings, however, most journalists remained defiant and newspapers published editorials this week insisting that Malacañang respect media independence.

Interviewed Tuesday for the first time since lifting the state of emergency, Mrs. Arroyo reminded journalists that "freedom comes with responsibility."

"I do not always seek ‘praise releases,’" she told GMA radio anchor Mike Enriquez. "I look for a journalist... who does not just praise, in fact often criticizes, but also knows the limits."

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye defended Mrs. Arroyo’s comments yesterday, saying she was merely expressing her view.

"President Arroyo’s comment was based on her own observation, comparison and assessment of media coverage of all leading media entities in times of political crises and other serious events threatening our national security," Bunye said in a statement.

"This was not a jab at press freedom but a wake-up call to all journalists and media entities to reflect on the basic tenets of the profession," he said.

Media Kontra 1017, an alliance of news organizations in Davao City, said in a statement that Mrs. Arroyo’s emergency proclamation "was all the more terrifying" because it follows unsolved murders of journalists.

"Press freedom is one of democracy’s cornerstones — a muzzled press hastens the abuse of all other civil liberties," it said. — With Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, AP