One for press freedom

JOURNALISTS scored an initial victory when the Makati Regional Trial Court granted their petition for a temporary restraining order preventing government officials from issuing and implementing threats against members of the media covering situations similar to the Manila Peninsula standoff.

The 72-hour TRO is part of a class suit for damages filed by 32 journalists and four media organizations, including Malaya columnist Ellen Tordesillas, columnist and media critic Vergel Santos, ABC-5 news director Ed Lingao, GMA-7 vice president for news and public affairs Jessica Soho, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), and Philippine Press Institute.

Read the three-page TRO issued by the Makati RTC Judge Winlove Dumayas.

The petition named government officials who were responsible for the threats and arrests as respondents. These include local government secretary Ronaldo Puno, justice secretary Raul Gonzalez, defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro, police chief Avelino Razon, Jr., National Capital Region director Geary Barias, Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina, an officer of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Major General Hermogenes Esperon, the military’s chief of staff.

Aside from the TRO, the petitioners asked that the respondents be held liable for violations of their constitutional rights under Article 32 of the New Civil Code, be ordered to pay P10 million in actual, moral and exemplary damages, and for a permanent writ of injunction enjoining the respondents and their agents to desist from issuing and implementing threats of arrest against members of the media covering events similar to the Manila Peninsula standoff.

Should the petitioners win, whatever damages awarded will form part of a fund for the defense and protection of press freedom and journalists under threat.

Read the 17-page petition.

The 36 petitioners held a joint press conference with over 80 other journalists who filed for a writ of prohibition before the Supreme Court. These include Probe Productions head Cecilia Lazaro; Maria Ressa, head of ABS-CBN’s news and current affairs; Newsbreak editor-in-chief Marites Vitug; Inquirer columnists Conrado De Quiros, Manuel Quezon III, and Rina Jimenez-David; and international correspondents Manuel Mogato and Carlos Conde. The combined petitioners number over a hundred and belong to more than 20 media organizations. More petitioners are expected to be added. The NUJP alone has 50 chapters nationwide and community journalists have also expressed their interest in joining the petitions.

Read the 45-page petition for a writ of prohibition.

Aside from Puno, Gonzalez, Esperon, Razon, Barias, and Dolina, executive secretary Eduardo Ermita is named as a respondent in this petition.

“(T)hese suits are part of the journalism community’s continuing response to official intimidation, threats and harassment. They should serve as a warning that the Philippine press…have passed the stage of issuing statements and manifestos alone, and will supplement such campaigns for public awareness with the use of the legal means at their disposal,” the petitioners said in a statement.

“We take this action now because we cannot allow press freedom to be confined to narrow physical bounds and narrowly interpreted principles, conveniently defined by those in authority to serve the political interests of the moment,” said ABS-CBN’s Ressa.

She and the other petitioners are asking for a writ of prohibition to prevent the respondents from imposing any form of prior restraint on the press, including enforcing an advisory issued by Gonzalez “reminding” the press of its criminal liability, issuing and carrying out further threats, and publicly denouncing journalists as conspirators of rebels. The petition also asked the respondents not to treat media as combatants during military or police operations.

Razon told ANC that the police had no plans of filing counter-charges, and continued to recognize journalists as allies. Barias, meanwhile, was surprised to learn that he was a respondent in both petitions. He denied involvement in the media arrests. For his part, Gonzalez said that media was merely seeking publicity.

Senator Mar Roxas said in a statement that the cases filed today by media personnel against officials of the executive should spur the government to conduct a dialogue with the press.

It was during one such dialogue that Puno warned that the police would not hesitate to arrest the media again in case of a similar event in the future.

Supreme Court spokesperson Midas Marquez said that it was up to the SC to consider the cases’ merits. The SC is still waiting to hear from the respondents of a petition for a writ of amparo filed by ABS-CBN last week.

“It is the awareness of what is at stake that the CMFR, the NUJP, the PPI, the PCIJ and other media advocacy and journalists organizations have been involved in a number of efforts to dismantle the culture of impunity, oppose the use of the libel law to silence the press, and resist the escalating threats to the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of journalists to report and comment on public issues without fear of being handcuffed, manhandled and hauled off to a police camp for crossing imaginary police lines,” Teodoro said, speaking on behalf of the petitioners in the class suit.

These initiatives include the following:

• filing of a class suit in 2006 in response to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s flurry of libel suits
• ABS-CBN employees’ petition for a writ of amparo
• safety training for journalists
• seminars on ethics and professional standards
• creation of regional press councils to hear citizen complaints against the media

The petitioners in the class suit added that the Philippine press’ response to the threats against them were likely to be a model for other journalists in countries where press freedom is similarly being curtailed. CMFR Executive Director Melinda de Jesus said that the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and other media watchdogs would be vigorously monitoring the case. She added that media alliances have built a global support system as there has been a “paradigm shift in many governments trying to suppress or curtail press freedom.”

The plaintiffs of the civil suit stressed that while two suits have been filed, the press community is one in condemning the campaign to silence the press.