Last week, Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act  was enacted into law. The law seeks to punish cybercriminals involved in hacking, child pornography, cyber squatting, cyber bullying and identity theft.
The new law includes libel “committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future” as one of the “content-related” cybercrime offenses.
Immediately, local netizens aired their protests saying the law is violative of the freedom of expression, betrays President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s dictatorial tendency while describing the Cybercrime Law as Noynoy’s “E-Martial Law (Electronic Martial Law).
I for one, do not subscribe to Noynoy’s brand of governance, but I, certainly am for regulation of social networking.
Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy, one of the authors of the House version of the law, advances the one of most appropriate reasons for regulating social networking, saying Internet users should learn to make sure that what they post online has basis and does not “denigrate” another person.
“Bloggers and other Internet users do not only criticize government officials but also private individuals as well. It’s okay to do this, as long as it’s not excessive, baseless and not meant to denigrate any individual,” said Herrera-Dy.
“If journalists are duty-bound to heed libel law, why not others who also exercise freedom of expression?” the lady solon added.
Another author of the House version of the bill, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, said that RA 10175 “merely extends to the cyber realm or online world the principles we recognize in the printed or spoken world.”
“You simply cannot defame a person without any basis or truth. If you do, there are consequences, as there are defenses, like good faith or it was done pursuant to a moral duty,” Angara said.
Rightly said. Don’t bloggers consider themselves journalists also? In fact, during the yearly state of the nation address of whoever is president, bloggers would seek accreditation from the House of Representatives for the right to cover the Sona, squaring with us, accredited House media for every inch of space in the press center.
However, while we, members of the mainstream media are bound by discipline and ethics of the profession, bloggers, and other social network users are not, writing and posting whatever they want to suit their beliefs and their audience.
One classic example of these abuses by bloggers and other social network users was the experience of former presidential son, Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo.
Days after Typhoon “Ondoy” devastated the country in September 2009, a netizen posted a photo of Mikey showing him shopping for some wine at the Rustan’s Supermarket at Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, describing him as a callous public official busy shopping for alcoholic drinks even at the height of Ondoy’s wrath.
In his reaction to the Facebook post, Mikey though not denying it was him on the picture posted at Facebook, explained it was rather impossible for him to stop by at the said supermarket when Ondoy was lashing her fury to pick up some wines as what the blogger suggests as Katipunan Avenue was rendered impassable by the floods that day.
“My picture posted at Facebook with a caption saying I was busy shopping for wine at the height of Typhoon Ondoy is another malicious attack at my personality. It is so depressing,” Mikey could only lament as he suggested that instead of resulting in grandstanding gimmickry at his expense, the bloggers should also busy themselves helping their countrymen who were then still reeling from the effects of the worst natural calamity the country had experienced in decades.
While acknowledging that blogging, the latest craze to hit the internet, is an exercise of freedom expression, Mikey said he believes it should still be regulated as it has become more susceptible to abuses by unscrupulous people.
“Facebook is easily susceptible to abuses as people can easily hide their identities,” Mikey said then. “Masahol pa sila sa kwentong barbero.”
However, then Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros immediately engaged Mikey in a heated debate saying social networking sites in the Internet should not be covered by libel laws.
Risa defended then social networking so viciously as she stressed that since users of Internet sites are merely exercising freedom of expression, they should be exempted from libel.
I wonder where Risa is now and why she has been so quiet after Noynoy has signed the Cybercrime Law to include online libel.
Anyway, this is not to say that I do not believe in the freedom to express one’ self. But freedom cannot be absolute. The freedom we enjoy comes with responsibility.
However, I still see the bill needing to be perfected. For one, the right of the government to close a site it deems to be publishing libelous materials needs to go as it would be arbitrary on its part to do so. Everything should still undergo the right process.