The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) has expressed concern after the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay invoked its “right to reply” to react on the report published by the Inquirer linking the opposition leader to a remittance company tagged in a $81-million money laundering scandal.
In a statement issued on Monday, NUJP sounded off the “potentially dire consequences” of the action made by the Binay camp on the freedom of the press and expression.
“What makes the right to reply particularly obnoxious is its stated aim of forcing media outlets to print or air offended parties’ replies ‘with the same prominence or in the same page or section or in the same time slot as the first statement.’
“While we agree that aggrieved parties may demand that a media outfit carry their side of a story, they have absolutely no right to demand what amounts to the confiscation of page space or airtime. We can only shudder at the prospect of our famously petty and onion-skinned public officials gleefully taking over media over every perceived slight,” the group said.
Binay’s party, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), has filed a verified claim before the Commission on Elections to invoke their right to reply to the Inquirer front page story last March 17 which stated that Binay allegedly routed P100 million to Hong Kong through Philrem Service Corp., the company involved in the transfer of stolen $81 million from Bangladesh Central Bank to fake accounts in the Philippines.
Read: UNA says Inquirer report meant to vilify Binay
The Inquirer article was based from a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
UNA claimed that the Inquirer report “intended to tarnish” the reputation of its standard bearer.
READ: Nancy Binay tells Inquirer: See you in court
The Inquirer has reported UNA’s denial on the same page where the alleged money transfer story appeared—and this initiative from the newspaper was noticed by the NUJP.
NUJP said that taking media outfits to task can be done through other means which would not necessarily involve the legislation of a right to reply provision. The methods include asking another media outfit to carry their side on the issue or go to court.
The journalists’ group has demanded the repeal of Section 10 of the Fair Election Act and that Comelec to scrap Section 16 of its Resolution No. 10049—the latter was invoked by UNA against the Inquirer.
READ: VP has no right to demand right to reply
It also asked the public to unite to fight any move to legislate any right to reply provision.
“Even as we call on the media and fellow journalists to work for the highest professional and ethical standards in the course of our work of serving the people’s right to know, let us also strive for greater unity to defend freedom of the press and of expression against all attempts to diminish it, such as through right to reply legislation,” NUJP concluded. JE