Culture of secrecy

By Marifi Jara

While  the media was busy wringing every possible angle on the unfolding ZTE story, not much attention was given to what could well be a landmark decision involving the freedom of speech that we have, which, thanks to our own efforts  at fighting for democracy, is one of the most extensive there is in the world.

On February 15, a Supreme Court decision, penned by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, was issued declaring that government warnings, even if not in the form of official orders or circulars, curtail press freedom.

The SC ruling stems from the case filed by Francisco Chavez against Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzales and the National Telecommunications for issuing threats to the media if they dare publish or broadcast the content of the Hello Garci tapes.

Gonzales told the media that they could be charged in violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Act  if they did so.

That statement and the NTC’s subsequent press release containing a similar warning “are acts that should be struck down as they constitute impermissible forms of prior restraints on the right to free speech and press,” the SC said.

It further said, “In this jurisdiction, it is established that freedom of the press is crucial and so inextricably woven into the right to free speech and free expression, that any attempt to restrict it must be met with an examination so critical that only a danger that is clear and present would be allowed to curtail it.”

Making public those recordings posed no threat to the nation’s security. The clear and present danger, to borrow the SC’s words (and I can’t help but mention the title of one of Tom Clancy’s earlier – and better I must say -thriller novels which was made into an equally exciting movie with Harrison Ford in his younger days), evidently involved just one person and her reputation and legitimacy as leader of this country.

The SC decision is significant not just to the media. All of us should be cheering because deeply tied to the freedom of the press is everyone’s right to information. The public ultimately stands to benefit from the news that we deliver.

The right to information is outlined in Section 7, Article 3 (containing the Bill of Rights) of our Constitution. It says “the right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development”.

This is a good time, perhaps better than any considering all that is happening in the political scene, to be reminded of that. 

A culture of secrecy has long characterized our bureaucracy. Getting facts and figures from government agencies, whether at the local or national level, is never easy.

Now would be a good time, perhaps better than any, to begin changing that tradition of distorted confidentiality.

(Readers may reach columnist at marifijara@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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