Plea assailing Arroyo media regulation junked

MANILA, Philippines - A petition  in the Supreme Court (SC) assailing an order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) during the Arroyo administration has been dismissed for petitioners’ failure to file the case on time.

In that order, the NTC warned against the airing, publishing or broadcasting of news and commentaries that the Arroyo administration had considered subversive, seditious and rebellious. 

Spokesman Theodore Te said the SC ruled that petitioners’ failure to bring the case to the SC on time had made the NTC order and the Court of Appeals (CA) rulings affirming it final and no longer subject to review.

Last Tuesday, SC justices dismissed the 2007 petition of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and upheld the CA rulings of May 30, 2007 and Oct. 3, 2007 affirming the legality of NTC Memorandum Circular No. 01-03-2006.

The PPI and NUJP branded the NTC order as an attempt to censor the press for warning against the airing or publishing of anti-Arroyo news reports.

The CA ruled that a petition for prohibition was not the proper remedy   since the NTC memorandum was issued in the exercise of its quasi-legislative or rule-making power.

It can review judicial and ministerial functions, but not legislative or quasi-legislative functions, the CA added.

Joining PPI and NUJP in the petition  were Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, UP College of Mass Communication and other media personalities and organizations.