Sotto law to be amended for the benefit of media practitioner says Sotto III

SENATE OFFICE, Manila, April 27, 2011-Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto C. III today seeks to amend the law introduce by his grandfather and to continue to be enjoyed by media practitioners in exercising press freedom to include cable and internet-based media exempting them from revealing their sources of information, saying that today’s modern technology and various social networking sites are already being used for faster dissemination of current events where existing laws should be made to conform with the emerging new medium of mass communications.

Sotto III furthered that technology has advanced by leaps and bounds and with it, the expansion of coverage of mass media where news and investigative reports are not only broadcast through the print media but also through radio, television, cable and internet.

In his Senate Bill No. 41, Sotto III said that the law was conceived at a time when today’s technology was unthinkable. Nonetheless, the purpose of the law protecting and enhancing the freedom of the press, so as to inform the public of current events and issues that affect their lives, remains relevant and important where he proposed for an amendment to R.A. No. 53 to include responsible personnel from radio, television, cable and internet-based media from the exemption provided by the law to conforms in the fast-changing technology and further protect the freedom of the press.

Sotto III also proposed for an amendment in section 1, to also cover station manager, producer, news director or duly accredited reporter of any print, broadcast or electronic mass media, including but not limited to newspaper, magazine or periodical of general circulation.

He said that such persons representing media entities in radio, television, cable, internet site and other electronic media outlets, cannot be compelled to reveal the source of their news items obtained in confidence, unless the court or any of the two Houses of Congress or any of its committees finds that such revelation is demanded by the interest of the State.

In 1946, the late Senator Vicente Yap Sotto authored R.A. No. 53, otherwise known as an act to exempt the publisher, editor or reporter of any publication from revealing the source of Published news or information obtained in confidence. At times they called it “Sotto Law” which was put in place when dissemination of news and investigative reports were not as sophisticated as today. (Jason de Asis)