Cebu Citizens Press Council

RESOLUTION OPPOSING SENATE AND HOUSE BILLS LEGISLATING RIGHT TO REPLY

BELIEVING that a free press protects press freedom and all other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, including the democratic way of life itself;

CONVINCED that the core of press freedom is the right of journalists to choose what to publish and what not to publish, restrained only by laws against libel, obscenity, sedition, and violations of national security, and industry rules and standards;

RE-AFFIRMING well-established principles against prior restraint which protects journalists against intrusion into the choice of newspaper or broadcast content;

EMPHASIZING the fact that (a) journalists already practice the right to reply as part of individual and corporate standards and the news outlets’ accountability to their public and audience and (b) what journalists oppose is legislating and criminalizing the right to reply;

POINTING OUT that whatever lapses of journalists under the right to reply are being corrected by the press’ own mechanisms, such as in-house codes of standards and ethics and citizens-press organizations, such as the Cebu Citizens-Press Council whose code of procedure specifically mentions the right to reply as ground for a complaint or grievance with the council;

ALARMED by the threat of compulsory access to media proposed in bills pending before the Senate and the House of Representatives,

NOW THEREFORE, the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC),
composed of media and non-media members, in its last quarterly meeting for the year 2007 at the MBF Cebu Press Center, hereby:

Expresses its vigorous opposition to pending proposals to legislate and criminalize the right to reply, as they infringe on press freedom and are unnecessary, impractical, and open to abuse;

Adopts the position paper prepared by newspaper and broadcast editors and lawyer-members of Cebu Media Legal Aid (Cemla), who discussed the issue last Dec. 5, 2007 at Cebu City Marriott Hotel, and formally makes it a part of this resolution; and

Encourages concerned civic and church groups and the academe to join the outcry of journalists against compulsory access to media under pain of fine and imprisonment.

APPROVED this 14th day of December, 2007 at the MBF Cebu Press Center in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City.