Palace to media: Take complaints to court

Malacañang challenged media organizations to take their complaints about the administration’s alleged suppression of press freedom to the courts, insisting there would be no "special treatment" of journalists who violate the law, including those who commit acts of sedition or libel.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye Jr. said in a statement that the government "has never acted out of whim or caprice, but only under the principle of public necessity and the national welfare."

"Be that as it may, the courts are fully open to receive challenges to official actions, and to rule on them. The Bill of Rights is in force," Bunye said.

"The press is not a target of censorship but some members of the press have been charged with violations of law and shall be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen," he said.

Bunye said Malacañang believes in the freedom of the press "but we do not believe in special treatment of media practitioners who run afoul of the law."

He also urged media outfits to "police" their ranks and not to allow interest groups to abuse the freedom of the press for their own personal gain.

Last Wednesday, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he would investigate the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for possible "inciting to sedition."

The center has exposed corruption in government as well as posted on its website audio recordings that purported to show that President Arroyo cheated in the May 2004 polls.

Meanwhile, a radio program that has been critical of the administration has been pulled off the air by its mother station, whose owner has links to Mrs. Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, station officials said Wednesday.

Also last week, 36 print and broadcast journalists and nine media groups led by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the PCIJ, Newsbreak magazine and television networks ABS-CBN and GMA-7 questioned before the Court of Appeals (CA) the crackdown undertaken by the government against critical news groups.

The crackdown was an offshoot of Proclamation 1017 issued by the President last Feb. 24 declaring a state of national emergency owing to a coup plot. She subsequently issued General Orders No. 5 and 6, which became the basis for what was widely viewed as actions to clamp down on the media.

The media organizations asked the CA to stop the administration from curtailing press freedom and censoring media reporting.

The PPI, a national organization of newspaper publishers, said in a statement: "It is the first time since martial law that a broad range of media organizations and journalists have banded together to file a petition in court, questioning government efforts to restrain media reporting and intimidate journalists."

In the petition, media groups asserted that "only a court, with its accompanying due process safeguards, may impose content-based prior restraints."

Meanwhile, the Makati Business Club (MBC), one of the biggest groups of businessmen in the country who control some 400 corporations based mostly in Makati City, broke its silence and lashed out at the Arroyo administration’s alleged attacks on press freedom.

"The government’s not-so-veiled warning against the media contained in Proclamation 1017 and its subsequent moves against The Daily Tribune and threats against media, if (media) doesn’t follow certain ‘standards,’ constitutes a direct assault on democracy and the basic freedoms we value and enjoy," the MBC said in a statement. — With AFP