Broadcast, online media to be covered by Sotto Law soon

The country’s broadcast and online media may soon be exempted from revealing their news sources.

The Senate is expected to deliberate on plenary two weeks from now a proposed measure that will include the broadcast and online media in a 70-year-old law that so far exempts only the print media from divulging their news sources.

This after the Senate committee on public information and mass media chaired by Sen. Grace Poe concluded on Wednesday its single hearing on amendments to Republic Act no.  53 or the Shield or Sotto Law that, since 1946, has protected print journalists who refuse to reveal their sources.

The inclusion of broadcast and online media in the exemption was pushed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, whose grandfather the late Sen. Vicente Sotto authored the 1946 law which covered only the print media.—CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO