Pacquiao wants bloggers licensed, media ‘controlled’

Senator Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday said bloggers should not hide behind anonymity and instead be required by the government to acquire licenses.

“Do you agree na lahat ng bloggers kailangan kumuha ng permit o license para ma-control natin lahat ng mga — siyempre magtatago ka sa ibang anyo, magtatago ka sa ibang mukha tapos magpo-post ng below the belt. Unfair naman,” Pacquiao said at the resumption of the Senate hearing on fake news.

“Kasi pag hindi na-register 'yan, madadamay 'yung mga may mabubuting intensyon…Para sa’kin, mabuti pa i-register na lang lahat ng bloggers,” he added.

Pacquiao also asked resource persons from the media and academe whether media should be “controlled.”

“We know that in our Constitution, there is freedom of expression but because of this freedom of expression, naabuso na kasi. Do you think the media in the country, we should control it? I think that’s the problem kasi sa technology natin ngayon, iba na,” the neophyte senator said.

Ruperto Nicdao, Jr., chairman of the Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), said there is already sufficient laws to address fake news. What is lacking, he said, is the implementation of such laws.

“There has been an attempt to pass a similar law in the past, to license to journalists and bloggers. But for us, that is an infringement…Yung freedom of expression nalilimitahan,” Nicdao said.

Nicdao pointed out that blogs operate in a “borderless Internet” and to license bloggers is “practically asking for the impossible.”

Professor JJ Disini of the UP College of Law said requiring bloggers to acquire licenses would be unconstitutional because it restricts the right to free speech. —KBK, GMA News