Definition from the High Court

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Journalists all over the country are one in spirit with their colleagues who are now standing up for the rest of them in ensuring that this government that flaunts itself as a democratic one, even as a model for that form of government in the region, will finally recognize and respect the line that separates the territory where freedom of speech and press exist, from one where repression, censorship and persecution of its practitioners are allowed.

At the moment, some 70 courageous men and women, members of Philippine media are storming the highest court of the land, calling for a definition of how far the Constitution of this country allows a free press to practice. In this, they are backed by their fellow practitioners who realize that what is on the line is something truly basic to their profession, and to another one, which is the people's right to know.

Perhaps what happened after the siege at the Manila Peninsula Hotel where renegade soldiers held a stand-off with government forces, had been a blessing in disguise. Even if several members of the country's leading media entities had to go through harassment and the humiliation of being manacled and hauled off for interrogation at an army camp, that did not break their spirit. In fact, it made all the rest wake up to the fact that this government and some of its power-drunk officials could go the way of those from other countries where the press has now been silenced, muzzled, and deprived of the right to function in their roles for society.

All journalists in this country, therefore, should not only applaud, but support and augment the efforts of their fellows who are now seeking the affirmation of their rights as stated in the Constitution, from the Supreme Court. Let this be resolved, once and for all, so that the role of media and the privilege of untrammeled freedom are upheld, as it should be in a true democracy.*