Bill amending ‘Press freedom law’ hurdles House panel

House of Representatives. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – A bill expanding the coverage of the “Press freedom law” hurdled the committee level in the House of Representatives.

House bill No. 362 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 53, which exempts the publisher, editor or reporter of any publication from revealing the source of any information relayed to them in confidence “unless the court or a House or committee of Congress finds that such revelation is demanded by the interest of the State.”

The House committee on public information endorsed the plenary passage of the bill.

The law needed to be amended to include broadcast and online journalists, among others, the bill’s principal author Cebu city representative Raul Del Mar said in a statement Tuesday.

In the proposed measure, included in the exemptions are the publisher, station manager and or manager, bureau chief, editor, news editor, writer or reporter, correspondents, opinion columnists or commentators, cartoonists, photographers, or any practitioner involved in the gathering, writing, editing of and commenting on the news.

“It is an omission that must be filled, an anomaly that must be corrected, the journalists envisioned by the Sotto Law cannot be confined to print practitioners,” the committee report read.

The “Sotto law” was authored by the late senator Vicente Sotto, the grandfather of the incumbent senator and actor Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

The House panel approved the bill as it sits on the consolidation of the different versions of the Freedom of Information bill, which seeks to promote transparency and accountability in government transactions.

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