A LOCAL tabloid has decided to discontinue its controversial column “Wildflower.”
“We will be pulling out this particular column just to satisfy the demands of the board (Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board), which is representing the Cebuanos,” lawyer Jesus Atoc told reporters yesterday.
He said the management of Freeman Banat News decided to remove the daily series, a fiction narrative, which is the subject of a complaint filed by CCAIB before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Atoc, who is preparing the counter-affidavits of Banat News staff and officials, denied that the Cebuano language tabloid had violated the law.
“It is not true that it contains obscene content. It should be viewed in its entirety, not by a single (column),” Atoc said.
He said the plan of Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale to ban tabloids through an ordinance curtails freedom of expression.
“Cebuanos can determine whether or not Banat News is obscene. You can’t judge a book by its cover,” the lawyer said.
Atoc said Banat News is reviewing its columns.
With “Wildflower,” “the story, the way it is written, has been toned down,” he said.
The CCAIB complained that the Banat column was “obscene, indecent and sexually suggestive.”
The publisher, company president and writer were accused of violating Cebu City’s Anti-Indecency Ordinance and Article 201 or the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines which prohibits “obscene publications and exhibitions, and indecent shows.”
The CCAIB filed a similar complaint against Sun.Star SuperBalita for its daily series “From Junquera with Love”
The complaints are under preliminary investigation by Assistant City Prosecutor Rodulf Joseph Val Carillo. /REPORTER ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL