KBP will go to supreme court if right of reply bill is passed
The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the largest organization of broadcast operators and stations in the country will go to the Supreme Court if the right of reply bills now pending in Congress and the Senate are passed into law. KBP President Herman Z. Basbaño said the right of reply bill is not only unnecessary, because journalists are already subject to the ethics of journalism, but it is also unconstitutional because it violates the prohibition on the enactment of laws abridging the freedom of expression, speech and of the press which are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
Basbaño said that if the bill is enacted into law, it will hang like a sword of Damocles over the freedom of expression, threatening to curtail the airing through the media of dissenting views, which is a cornerstone of a free and democratic society.
Basbaño said that if the present right of reply bill is passed into law journalists will no longer be able to freely report on matters of importance to the public since this function will now be taken over by those who want to unduly shape public opinion to advance their own interests.
Basbaño said that the KBP has always insisted that in a democracy shortcomings by the media should be corrected or sanctioned by self-regulatory bodies. He said that the KBP has an internal ombudsman, the KBP Standards Authority (SA), which hears complaints against broadcasters violating its code of ethics and the print media have their own counterparts.
He said that instead of opening the floodgates for unscrupulous individuals to control what is being reported in the media, the law should strengthen these self-regulatory bodies so that they can perform their functions more effectively.
