MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

“To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.”

–Ma Jian

Freedom of speech is the right to express one’s thoughts publicly and not be punished for doing so. It is legally defined as “the right to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction (US First Amendment)”. This right has been given to every citizen in a country, with limitations mentioned in their own laws. Here in the Philippines, our government is known as democratic and therefore, our right to the express our thoughts freely is recognized by the law. Unfortunately, within these past few weeks, tension has been rising due to the issue of the newly proclaimed law which is known as the Anti- Cyber Crime Law. This law was signed by the president last September and ever since, many are trying to revoke it. Protests have been made by many activists, and professional hackers have been rebelling by hacking into government websites, endangering the government’s files to be exposed and corrupted. This law, destroys the concept of freedom of speech for the Filipino citizens.

The Anti- Cyber Crime Law** has been made in order to pursue those who are committing crimes in the online world. This law is said to include offenses against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer date system, illegal access, illegal interception, date interference, system interference and misuse of devices, as stated by presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. This law also covers fraud and identity theft, cybersex, pornography and unsolicited commercialization. The punishments are imprisonment for 6 to 12 years, payment of fines and suing of libel.

I think that this law was presented in a blurry manner and the provisions have not been fully clarified and dissected. This law which may have been formulated in order to protect the safety of people’s privacy and the safety of their intellectual properties is understandable but the provisions that have been made are not clearly reviewed and the punishments given are too oppressive that can be seen as unreasonable, that can stifle our freedom of expression. It is not properly reviewed because there are many flaws and there are also contradictory provisions in it. The manner in which they implemented this law might be the reason why many people disagree with its execution. Other people might also agree with me since this law hinders people who are using the internet to fully express themselves. This goes against the principle of democracy and freedom of speech that our country is said to have.

This law was supposedly implemented to stop online crimes. The intention may be reasonable, but the way the government has implemented it is not very competent; and due to these flaws, and also through the unity of the people and the media to expose the defects this law has to offer, the government has decided to reconsider it and provide revisions, if not the total removal of this law.

*link to the site: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/10/09/12/cybercrime-law-was-cut-and-paste-lawmaking

**additional info: http://www.gov.ph/2012/09/12/republic-act-no-10175/

***images came from the internet, I do not claim ownership over them