Media unplugged: SC bars live presscon
The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office on Tuesday has barred live coverage of its press conference.
On Tuesday, the PIO called members of the press for a press conference for updates on what happened during the en banc session.
However, a staff from the PIO said the press briefing should not be aired live on television and radio.
After almost 30 minutes of waiting, the staff said that high court’s Information Chief Theodore Te will not start the briefing unless the cables used to air the press briefing live on television is pulled out.
When asked by reporters about the new change of policy, he said the high court “has never allowed live coverage of anything.”
“The Court has never allowed live coverage of its proceedings and I read that to include the presscon…In exceptional cases perhaps yes, but I don’t know what would be exceptional,” Te said.
Court proceedings “are activities undertaken by the court in connection with the litigation of a suit which include arraignments, pre-trials, trials, hearings, ocular inspections, oral arguments and other related incidents.
These proceedings are open to the public except in those instances when the law or the rules allow the court to exclude the public,” the Manual Guide for the Judiciary in Dealing with Media issued by the Philippine Judicial Academy stated.
“It is not and shouldn’t be treated in the same way as the political departments because there really is no breaking news all the time as far as SC is concerned,” Te said.
Te said he does not know what the basis for the previous instances is where the press briefing is being aired live.
He added that if the press briefing at the Supreme Court is being filmed, then “you were filming it without permission.”
Te said the media “may want to revisit how the Supreme Court is covered as a beat.”
One of the founding members of the Justice and Court Reporters Association (JUCRA) Reynaldo “Kaka” Panaligan of Manila Bulletin said in his forty years of covering the Supreme Court, “I could not recall an incident, before the creation of its public information office, when the Supreme Court declined live television or radio coverage of an announcement of a resolution or decision, particularly those that affect public interest.”
“Yes, media may be banned during closed-door deliberation of cases. But once a decision is reached and promulgated, there is no reason to ban live television or radio coverage during the announcement of the decision. The Supreme Court should be the example of transparency. It should not only, as it does, uphold press freedom in its decision. It should practice it,” Panaligan said.
Live coverage of Supreme Court press briefings was never prohibited. Te is the third person to head the high court’s Public Information Office since its creation in 1998. His predecessors Jose Midas Marquez, now Court Administrator and Ishmael Khan, allows live media briefing.
In 1998, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. instituted the high court’s PIO in 1998. Davide has envisioned a Supreme Court that is not detached from the populace. He had described it as the coming down of the so-called gods from Mt. Olympus and the opening of the fortress that is the Court.
Before Chief Justice Davide took over in 1998, the workings of the Supreme Court were largely a mystery to those outside the legal profession; its Justices were not as well-known as their counterparts in the Executive and Legislative branches.
RELATED STORIES
Theodore Te named new SC spokesman
