Right to reply’ means control of Web media

INQUIRER.net
First Posted 23:25:00 09/07/2009

Filed Under: Technology (general), Internet

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MANILA, Philippines – Apart from anti-pornography laws that can throttle freedom of both individual and businesses on cyberspace, the Right to Reply bill filed at the Senate is also seen to have dire effects on Internet freedom.

The said bill, filed by Senators Aquilino Pimentel, Ramon Revilla, Jr. and Francis “Chiz” Escudero, was tackled in a recent discussion on Internet governance and surveillance at the De La Salle University Institute of Governance tackled control mechanisms against the media, both “offline” and online.

The discussion touched on issues pertaining to government control over the Internet in an effort to root out pornography.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Deputy Secretary General Alwyn Alburo stressed during the roundtable discussion that while the bill’s principles of journalist responsibility is not being challenged, the institutionalization that requires giving space or airtime for those who deemed wronged by the media to reply is one that has raised many objections from journalists.

The proposal even adds online media as those who have to give space to those allegedly accused. Even with online space to accommodate such complaints, Alburo said the bill can affect the operations of online media organizations.

Incidentally, there is also a question whether the bill could also affect ordinary people who own blogs and write scathing criticisms or accusations against certain personalities. This also becomes an issue to those who are exercising their own freedom of speech online.

In a previous interview with the Inquirer, Kabataan party-list Representative Mong Palatino told warned that a Congress version of the proposal, House Bill 3306 would also cover the Internet social networking services and blogs.

Arguments against the Right to Reply bill has snowballed beyond media but to just about everyone who practice freedom of speech, including those who own blogs and are part of social networking sites.


Cybercrimes and punishment


But Department of Justice Assistant Secretary Geronimo Sy countered that journalists on any given media platform should always require restraint in reporting, citing to the concept of “strike but hear me first.”

He specifically pointed out to reports of media killings, stating that some of the journalists killed were just block timers, people who paid for airtime and already claimed that they are journalists.

On the aspect of online crimes, Sy made a surprising revelation that 70 to 80 percent of cybercrime complaints in the Philippines were actually “paninirang puri” (character assassination).

But Sy also stressed that if laws on Internet have to be re-examined, they should look at the level of punishment that must be imposed on criminals, if these would be equal and justified.

He said that there had already been two convictions against cybercriminals. The first was against a credit card fraudster while the other was a hacker of the Office of the President website. Incidentally, Sy said both were students who were merely acting out of boredom and wanted to test their computer skills.

“Can you punish them heavily just because they were not aware of the implications? We have to re-examine these kinds of punishments,” Sy said.


Social control for online protection


Rather than using laws to cure pornography or deviancy – and smother individual freedom and business growth – social measures become the best mode of prevention. Simply put, all organizations including those in household communities, schools, and businesses, have to impose their own guidelines to prevent the abuse of the Internet.

At the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Management and Information Systems Service Director Wayne Belizar said the agency has already imposed guidelines on all their division office across the country to prevent the use of office computers for pornography. They would also be installing filtering applications on these computers.

Officials of i-Café Pilipinas, a group composed of Internet café owners, officials said they are putting strict guidelines on their members. These include disallowing students to enter Internet shops during specific hours of a school day, and also wearing of school uniforms.

Although the Internet remains to be free, GMA News’s Alburo said they still exercise the same level of restraint and fairness in their work for published stories online, which is also being done in other online news organizations.

DLSU Institute of Governance Director Francisco Magno said that the discussions were being conducted to determine the issues concerning control over the Internet, whether it should be done by the government, a separate institution, or by the public at hand.

These are also similar to projects on Internet governance conducted by Professor Erwin Alampay of the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance, and the Foundation of Media Alternatives headed by Al Alegre.

Magno said the roundtable meetings with key representatives in the media, private sector, IT stakeholders and the public, also aim to create a policy framework for Internet governance.

“So far, we’ve gathered a lot of ideas from different organizations, including those from the government. We found out that there is no centralized institution to do these regulations. There are pending laws on Internet policies to regulate or filter content,” Magno said.

“For now, social controls are better. These are being done in government offices and private sector organizations. There’s still a lot to be done and discussed when it comes to Internet governance,” Magno added.