Press Release
May 19, 2009

Right to reply bill will enhance journalists' sense of responsibility -- Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. today reassured media practitioners that the bill mandating the right to reply is meant to enhance the freedom of expression and not to curtail press freedom.

Pimentel hailed the decision of the House committee on public information, chaired by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, to endorse the passage of the right to reply bill after thorough study and extensive consultations with journalists and other stakeholders in the media community.

"It is time to approve the proposal despite the objections of members of the working press. But to undermine the practice of the journalism profession is farthest from our mind. Our concern is that if certain persons feel aggrieved because of defamatory and inaccurate stories in the newspapers or broadcast media, they will not find themselves defenseless as what is happening in several instances," said Pimentel who initiated the proposal.

The senator from Mindanao stressed that it is the right of the media to expose wrongdoing in government and society and to criticize individuals over their misdeeds. However, he said that they should be prepared to provide print or airtime to the parties who were at the receiving end of unflattering and malicious stories or commentaries.

Pimentel, who has had some journalistic experience as a newspaper columnist, commended mediamen who say they have been practicing the right to reply even in the absence of a corresponding legislation.

He said responsible journalists like them have nothing to fear from the right to reply bill because it is actually targeting certain abusive members of the Fourth Estate who don't bother to give aggrieved persons a chance to present their side of a story that is damaging to their reputation.

Pimentel also lauded the House sponsors of the measure for striking a compromise by providing for flexibility on the part of newspaper editors and broadcasters in accommodating the reply of aggrieved persons and by dropping the imposition of jail terms from the penal provisions.

He pointed out that the Senate version of the bill, that was approved last year, actually does not contain a prison term and imposes reasonable and modest amount of fine for violators of the right to reply bill.

"In any legislation that intends to regulate the practice of the journalism profession, the natural tendency of the media practitioners is to put up a resistance. But I honestly believe that the right to reply bill will help make media practitioners more responsible. At the same time, it will enhance the trust of the public in their media institutions in the sense that they become more reliable, objective and impartial in reporting the news," he said.

Ultimately, he said the right to reply bill is beneficial to the journalists because this spares them from the risk of being sued for libel over slanderous stories or commentaries.

Pimentel said the usefulness and necessity of the right to reply law been shown in several European countries where this legislation is in force.

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