MIRIAM: RIGHT TO REPLY RAISES CHARTER ISSUES

“The first constitutional issue is the chilling effect on the right of free expression. The right of reply might in effect result in prior restraint on free expression, if it succeeds in causing media to refrain from using any material adverse to any public official or personality,” she said.

Santiago cited the 2001 case of Social Weather Stations v. Comelec, where the Supreme Court ruled that there is no right of reply to survey results released before election day.

The senator also cited the 1998 case of Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines, Inc. v. Comelec, which in turn cited an American case which ruled that while there might be a right to reply in broadcast media, there is no right of reply in print media.

Santiago also said that the present wording of the bill gives the right of reply to any “accusation” or “criticism,” which are very broad terms.

“In effect, this is a penal statute and the Supreme Court might declare it unconstitutional on the basis of the void for vagueness doctrine, which requires punishable acts to be specified in detail,” she said.

Santiago also said that Philippine cases have adopted the rule in the landmark American case of New York Times v. Sullivan, that “public officials should not be onion-skinned.”

However, Santiago also noted that freedom of the press has sometimes been abused by corrupt journalists, particularly in cases where they are bribed by certain corrupt public relations firms to publish completely false rumors or insinuations against rivals of the PR clients.

“At the same time, we cannot ignore instances where phony news or feature stories in the front page are used to destroy the credibility of a public official, whose arguments on a public issue are so persuasive that they can only be demolished by character assassination. It has certainly happened to me, but I think the public has wised up to this form of corrupt journalism,” she said.

Santiago proposed that the committee should refer the bill to a technical working group of constitutional experts, and said she would support the bill if the unconstitutional provisions are amended.

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