Part 1 Published years ago in the Capiz Times PRESS FREEDOM & DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE John Gabriel “If a ruler pays attention to false information, All his officials will be liars” (Pr 19:5) “A far greater misunderstanding for our role in the Press is that which sees us as prospective cheerleaders for majority opinion, or as handmaids of established authority…The Press cannot be content to take the government hand-out published more or less what the established order wants published, and collude with it habitually and systematically to put out a version of the truth that officialdom has decided is the one fit for public consumption” (Catherine Graham, Washington Post). Proposition No. 1 In a democracy, governance is of, by and for the free expression of people. “A government that rules a country from a great distance has the most need for a free press, more so even the government of the country… But the government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh and estimate them better” (Galang, 1953, p. 138) “(T)he best test of truth is in the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market… Let a hundred flowers bloom and let a thousand thoughts contend” (Laurel, S.H., “Let the Sparks Shed Light”, International Conference on the 1896 Philippine Revolution, August 21-23, 1996). As Cardozo boldly professed, “(Even if) “I do not believe in a word that you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it” (cited in Paradoxes of Legal Science, p. 115). “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion mankind would no more be qualified in silencing that the one person than he, if he had the power would be justified in silencing mankind” (Maltz, 1964, p. 146). “All silencing is an assumption of infallibility… We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion, and if we are sire stifling it would be evil still… But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion still more than those who hold it. If opinion is right they are deprived of the truth; if wrong they lose, what is almost as great benefit, the clever perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error” (Curtis, 1981, Vol. 2, pp. 190, 186). Since the genera; or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or is never the whole truth, it is only by collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied” (John Stuart Mill). “A free press will let a government know the throbs of public opinion. We ask for the freedom of the press so that through it public opinion may be enlightened and guarded against certain intrigues” (The Philippines a Century Hence, La Solidaridad, 15 December 1899). The universal principle states, “(E)veryone shall have the right to hold opinion without interference” and the right to freedom of expression “except for i) respect of the rights or reputation of others; ii) and protection of national security, public order, health or morals…” (Art. 19: 2 & 3 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR). “In the sphere of Freedom of the Press”… “the right to discuss publicly and truthfully all matters of public concern” needs to be “without censorship and without fear of liability”. It includes “the freedom to say lawful but unpopular things…” (Philippine International Law Journal, vol. ii, Oct./dec., 1963, No. 2, p. 567). Press freedom therefore attests to the imprescriptible triumph of sovereign expression in democratic governance. Proposition No. 2 Press Freedom is a social vehicle through which citizens are educated in the principles and processes of democracy. It is necessary in a democratic governance, that public debate must be unrelenting in “(K)keeping the messages and exchanges authentic” … (Pope John Paul II). “Democracy is not just majority rule, but informed majority rule… The philosophy of democracy rests not on the belief on the natural goodness of man but his educability, not the inevitability of social progress but in the potentialities of nature and intelligence” (BSA Foundation, Inc., 1993). “(F)ull and informing debate is the basis of our democratic system”… “For it is not enough to allow dissent. We must demand it… In the darkness of tyranny, this free speech, is the key to the sunlight. If it is granted, all doors open. If it is withheld, none” (Robert F. Kennedy’s ideas, with annotations). “(W)hile preference of the majority must prevail, there should be full opportunity for all points of view to find expression, It means toleration for opposition opinion. Where you find suppression of minority opinion, there is no democracy” (ibid., 2003). Democracy is shown by the rights it secures no less than the contribution that it gives to people’s enjoyment and common interest, “If the press is to report fully and accurately the affairs of government, it must have ready access to all relevant sources of information. It is the duty of the press to pass to the reading public any information furnished to them by public officials. On the part of the public, our long established jurisprudence recognizes that any citizen of this country can demand the right to access to public documents where it can be shown that the public interest would be benefited” (Subido vs., Ozaeta, 41 Phil 391-392). Thus, our constitution guarantees that “(N)o law shall be passed abridging the freedom… of the press” and mandates the State to protect people’s rights to information access, public transparency or disclosure. “The interest of society and the maintenance of good government demand a full discussion of public affairs. Complete liberty to comment on the conduct of public men is a scalpel in the case of free speech… The people are not obliged to speak of the conduct of their officials in whispers or with bated breath in a free government, but only in a despotism… Public policy, the welfare of society, and the orderly administration of government have demanded protection for public opinion” ( U.S. vs. Bustos, 37 Phil, 742). To keep democracy safe from the rowing empire of private views, “the general will alone can direct the forces of the State toward the end for which it is established, namely, the common good” (Handel 1934, p. 162). “The common weal is best served in democracy”… which Roseau equated with “representative democracy”. A representative democracy is a system of governance where the people is the author of sovereignty and the finisher of all State authorities or powers. To determine the impulses of the sovereign will, the rule of the majority secures governance in terms of: I) representation to endow legitimacy to State’s authorities and powers; ii) control where public functionaries entrusted with these authorities or powers are at all times accountable to the people; as well as 3) renovation to sufficiently enable the jure bureaucracy bring back yesteryears’ best ideas and practices, and, reinvent these to good use in today’s quest for best-fit governance. “An informed public is… a precondition for democracy. Restricting government secrecy and gaining access to documents are necessary in any democracy… To understand these documents we need to know how they have been doctored… in the bureaucratic bowels of government… In fact, the most important political content of the document may be the history of its processing” (Toffler 1991, p. 19). On this score, the press is the most accessible and potent vehicle through which citizens can meaningfully participate in the affairs of governance. It is also a rich source of quality knowledge that can produce the rational order and progress of democratic institutions. “Democracy cannot long endure in a country where liberty is grossly misused any more than where liberty is illegitimately abridged…. (Alarcon vs. Mangahas, 69 Phil,). Liberty, as in freedom of the press, “is on for the good and never for evil. It is always in accord with right and the righteous and honorable conscience of an individual” (Apollinaire Marini). As to the “right of liberty guaranteed by the constitution”, it “includes the right to exist and the right to be free from arbitrary restraints or servitude… and is deemed to embrace the right of man to enjoy the faculties which he has been endowed by his Creator, subject only to such restraints as are necessary for the common welfare” (Rubi vs. Provincial Board, 31 Phil, 705). Thomas Jefferson believes that “(L)liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves and that too, of the people with a certain degree of instruction”. As John Dewey explained, “(T)he very idea of democracy… must be continuously explored afresh; it has to be constantly discovered, and rediscovered, remade and reorganized… (D)democracy then is not something static, not a specific way of life handed down from generation to generation; it is something still to be accomplished. In this sense, education will facilitate the process… Democracy and education bear reciprocal relation… For it is not merely that democracy is itself an educational principle, but that democracy cannot endure, much less develop, without education” (Monroe, 1995, pp. 371, 376, 196). The press stands in two portals” democracy and education. It is a vibrant, self-renewing social institution which liberates governance from despotism and political atrophy. Proposition No. 3 Public accountability is an axiom paramount in democracy; restriction to press freedom is a diminution of people’s liberty in the concept of sovereign authority. “Nothing is better settled in the law that a public official exercises power, not rights. Public officers are just agents of the State’s will and are entrusted with responsibility of discharging governmental functions. In the absence of a valid grant of power, “(D)departmental Zeal may not be permitted to outrun the authority conferred by a statute. Nor the righteousness of the motive then is the acceptable substitute (Villegas vs. Subido, 30 SCRA, 570). The “(L)aw defines power. No official, no matter how high, is above the law” (Villavicencio vs. Lukban, 39 Phil, 786, 787). “The Philippines is a … (republican) (and) democratic state. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them” (Art. II, sec. 1, 1987 Phil. Const.). “Sovereignty is just that of the general will” (Handel 1934, p, 161) which “can never be alienated, and that the sovereign who is less than the collective being cannot be represented except by himself; the power indeed may be transmitted but not the will” (Curtis, 1981, vol. 2). In a democracy, “(T)he policy of public official may be attacked, rightly or wrongly, with every argument which ability can find or ingenuity can invent… (A) public officer must not be too-skinned with reference to comments upon his official acts… The public officer may suffer a hostile an unjust accusation; the wounds can be assuaged with the balm of a clear conscience” (U. S. vs. Bustos, 37 Phil). Criticism ought to :deal(s) only with such things as shall invite public attention or call public comment. It does not follow a public man into his private life nor pry into his domestic concerns. They may attack and seek to destroy, by fair means or foul, the whole fabric of his statesmanship, but the law does not permit them to attack the man himself. They may falsely charged that his policies are bad, but they may not falsely charged that he is bad” (U.S. vs. Contreras, 23 Phil 313) (See also Coronel, 1991, pp. 19, 22). As long as “(T)he spate of publicity in the case… did not focus on the guilt… (of the person; annotation supplied)… but rather on the responsibility of the government” (Martelino vs. Alejandro, 32 Phil), the protective mantle of press freedom is deemed to articulate or advance the cause of public accountability. “In this present era of press freedom which is an indispensable ingredient for a free society, the opinion columns in a newspaper demand a different treatment” (CA-G.R., No. 133561, Nov. 6, 1995).
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:17:48 +0000
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