From EDSA to cyber space: Fight goes on for lost freedoms

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – Journalists, netizens and students across the country marked the 28th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA Revolution with protest actions against the online libel provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

The protest also marked the increasing influence of social media that reinforced traditional forms of protest on the streets.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) led the simulated “Black Tuesday Protest” with its local chapter here in Bulacan, describing it as “free expression from Highway 54 to cyber space.”

Highway 54 is the old name of EDSA, the center of the 1986 People Power Revolution.

While the protest is dubbed Black Tuesday, it actually started on Monday afternoon, after a handful of journalism students from the Bulacan State University here joined members of the NUJP-Bulacan chapter in a silent protest.

Students and journalists alike pulled slogans written on bond paper and posed for pictures in front of the Marcelo H. del Pilar monument at the Bulacan provincial capitol compound.

Those pictures were later posted on social media, especially Facebook, as part of the NUJP-Bulacan chapter’s cooperation in yesterday’s Black Tuesday Protest.

The NUJP-Bulacan chapter said the activity is in support of the calls for the junking of the online libel provision of the Cybercrime Law.

Philippine Press Institute chairman Jesus Dureza described the online libel provision as a “Jurassic penal sanction.”

He said that libel provisions in the more than 80-year-old Revised Penal Code (RPC) and in the newly minted Cybercrime Prevention Act must be removed.

“It is not only in the Supreme Court where we can seek relief from the unconscionable provisions and Jurassic penal sanctions of this new law. We can also go to Congress,” Dureza said.

“Let us all unite and support the move in Congress to decriminalize libel and remove the penal sanctions in all statute books that impinge on our inalienable freedom of the press and freedom of expression.”

The Philippine Center for investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said much has changed since the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos was toppled during the People Power revolt in 1986.

“But as many have pointed out, there are many things that have also remained the same,” the PCIJ said in its blog.

“As the nation celebrates the 28th anniversary of the revolt that toppled an overstaying regime, media and civil society groups have banded together for a new call for People Power: A call to junk the Cyber Libel provision of Republic Act 10175.”

Vice President Jejomar Binay also supported moves to decriminalize libel.

Binay, however, said he agreed with the SC decision upholding the constitutionality of the online libel provision in the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

Binay said he hoped that libel would be decriminalized, but freedom of expression should be balanced with restraint and accountability.

“You cannot just allow defamation to continue without accountability. But it should not be a criminal offense,” he said.

Binay reiterated that while people have the freedom to bash others in social media, measures must be introduced so that those who use the medium to spread malicious statements could be made accountable.

He added that this was in light of the increasing use of social media as a means of propagating black propaganda against individuals.

“There are constraints, parameters (to freedom of expression). You can’t simply defame one’s person on a whim,” Binay said during the commemoration of the 28th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution at the People Power Monument.

‘Online libel mocks EDSA spirit’

Around a hundred netizens, media practitioners and members of various militant organizations and civil society groups also marked the 28th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution by joining the Black Tuesday protest against the cybercrime prevention law at the EDSA Shrine.

“The message of EDSA is freedom of the press and freedom of the expression. But with the cybercrime law, the (decision of the SC to uphold the) online libel provision, and President Aquino’s defense of the law, it appears that the spirit of EDSA is being challenged” said Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, one of those who asked the SC to declare the cybercrime law unconstitutional.

Last week, the SC ruled in favor of online libel and declared as constitutional provisions in the law penalizing illegal access, data interference, cyber squatting, computer-related identity theft, cybersex, child pornography and allowing search and seizure of computer data.

The SC declared unconstitutional provisions penalizing unsolicited commercial communication, authorizing the collection or recording of traffic data in real-time and authorizing the Department of Justice to restrict or block access to suspected computer data.

Ridon said the petitioners would also separately file motions for reconsideration before the high court to appeal the SC ruling.

Prior to the rally, critics of the cybercrime law called on netizens to change their profile pictures and the content of their websites to black to protest the law.

The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications issued a statement affirming its call for the repeal of the law.

The college said that while they welcome the SC decision on the unconstitutionality of the takedown clause and the provision allowing investigators to collect real-time data, “the UP CMC expresses disappointment and concern that the fundamental issues surrounding RA 10175 have not been addressed.”

The Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance (PIFA) – also a petitioner in the case – said the SC threw away an opportunity to champion Internet freedom with its decision. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Janvic Mateo