Sufficiency of government intervention on matters relating to live broadcasting of crimes in progress or crisis situations

• Main Author: Caraig, Jane Donna C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Freedom of the press; Live television programs; Broadcast and Video Studies; Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7176
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Luneta bus hostage-taking situation in 2010 has recently become a comeback headline in television and radio, years after it actually happened as the citizens of both the Philippines and Hong Kong commemorated the tragic incident. This incident was shown to the whole world when television and radio networks covered it live. Broadcast media aired the situation without filter. Unsurprisingly, this produced substantial negative effects on the Filipino people. This incident also reminded me of the Manila Peninsula siege in 2007. It is also one of the instances wherein the media’s behavior was highlighted. The negative impacts triggered my curiosity on how sufficient Philippine laws are in dealing with these kinds of situations, which I called in this thesis paper as crimes in progress or crisis situations. I studied the circumstances of the two scenarios and the relevant prevailing laws, legal frameworks, and management principles. This study also contains excerpts of interviews I conducted with people who either played a role in the situations or experts in the broadcast industry. In analyzing the study materials, I found a lot of laws and statutes enacted for the protection of the people’s right to freedom of speech. But I noticed that they are all laws of general application. Thus, I proposed a specific law through which the Philippine Government can better protect, ethically and legally, the conflicting 6 Juris Doctor - Master of Business Administration interests of the State and the people; i.e., national security and freedom of expression, respectively. I believe that the proposed law will reinforce the mandate of the 1987 Philippine Constitution to protect the right to freedom of expression, particularly the freedom of the press. Indeed, there is a way to strike a balance between two opposing interests in order for the society to live in harmony.