"During these times of great challenges facing the nation, public information is a vital ingredient to national unity and to socio-economic and political development," Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said, adding that "the role of media in nation building is clearly important."
House Bill 4835, which introduces amendments to Republic Act 53, otherwise known as the "Sotto Law" which protects journalists from revealing their sources, was approved in plenary on the eve of the Lenten break last April 7.
Sessions will resume on May 15.
De Venecia said the bill was passed "to ensure that the mission of the press to check and balance and expose wrongdoing is not impeded."
The bill was authored by Representatives Raul del Mar of Cebu City, Gilbert Remulla of Cavite and Ernesto Nieva of Manila.
The Sotto Law, which currently only covers publishers, editors and reporters of any publication, will now be extended to include broadcast journalists from TV networks and radio stations, newswires and Internet publications.
"HB 4835 is intended to fill up an omission and correct an anomaly in the present law enacted at a time when the Internet was not even a dream and the broadcast media was just a vehicle for pure entertainment like music and dramas," De Venecia said in a statement.
Del Mar and Remulla said when the Sotto Law was passed, "electronic journalism was virtually non-existent, the news or wire agencies still had to be developed and recognized, and the Internet was not even a dream."
"It is an omission that must be filled, an anomaly that must be corrected," Del Mar said. "The journalists envisioned in the Sotto Law cannot be confined to print media practitioners."
The proponents said the measure "will not only strengthen confidence of journalists in the broadcast, wire agencies and in the Internet sector, but will also recognize the important role that they, together with print media, play in the building of communities."
According to them, the "wisdom behind the law protecting media practitioners from identifying their sources of news or information is to ensure the spring of data for news or comment does not dry up."