Journalists and media organizations filed on January 28 two suits on separate courts prohibiting government officials from issuing threats and warnings which violate press freedom, following the arrest of around 50 media practitioners during the Manila Peninsula standoff last year.

A P10-million class suit was filed at the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) by around 40 journalists along with media organizations including the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, and Philippine Press Institute. Apart from damages, the suit also asks for the issuance of a writ of injunction and a temporary restraining order (TRO).

A 72-hour TRO was issued by Judge Winlove Dumayas of the Makati RTC for government security officials to stop issuing threats against members of the media.

The P10-million amount of damages, according to plaintiffs’ chief legal counsel Harry Roque, will “send the police a very prompt message that it will be very expensive for them should they persist in violating the constitutional rights of the press.”

The petition for the issuance of writs of injunction and prohibition and an additional TRO was filed by another group of journalists at the Supreme Court (SC) due to its “urgency.” According to the petition, “the highest justice, police and military officials of the State have unleashed a barrage of threats and warnings against the press.”

The petition asks the SC to restrain government security officials from issuing direct or indirect threats, reminders of possible government sanctions, and “publicly denouncing journalists as coddlers or protectors of rebels.” The SC has yet to issue the TRO sought by the petitioners.

“Without this Honorable Court’s urgent intervention, petitioners and other journalists will suffer grave injustice and irreparable injury from acts that are plainly against the Constitution,” the petition states.

“Chilling effect”
“Threats by top-ranking government officials are damaging to a free press because of the chilling effect they produce: the fear and uncertainty they plant in the minds of journalists that leaves them constantly wondering if what they are going to publish or broadcast will land them in jail, and adjusting their actions accordingly,” the petition to the SC further says.

The respondents to the petition include Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon, and PNP officials Geary Barias and Asher Dolina.

According to the petition at the SC, “threats to the media came right after the police arrested about fifty journalists covering the ‘seige’ of the Manila Peninsula Hotel” on November 29. Though lessened in late December, the threats continue and “even appear to be escalating.”

Gonzales recently issued an advisory “reminding” media company heads that they may be charged for obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting a crime and/or rebellion should they “disobey lawful orders from duly authorized government officers and personnel” during police or military operations.

Unconstitutional
“When the government makes threats, this is even more problematic because it has the coercive power to back those threats,” petitioners’ lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno said. The petition adds that these threats are unconstitutional “because they unduly restrict petitioners’ rights to free speech and expression.”

UP journalism professor Luis Teodoro, deputy director of CMFR, said in a statement that the suits “should serve as warning that the Philippine press and the individuals and groups that compose it have passed the stage of issuing statements and manifestoes alone, and will supplement such campaigns for public awareness with the use of the legal means at their disposal.”

“What becomes of this case will become a model for other countries and other journalists in the same situation,” Teodoro added.# Philippine Collegian

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