Declaration on Digital Freedom

http://www.pen-international.org/pen-declaration-on-digital-freedom/declaration-on-digital-freedom-english/

Declaration on Digital Freedom

PEN International promotes literature and freedom of expression and is governed by the PEN Charter and the principles it embodies—unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations.

PEN recognizes the promise of digital media as a means of fulfilling the fundamental right of free expression. At the same time, poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists, writers, bloggers, and journalists are suffering violations of their right to freedom of expression for using digital media. Citizens in many countries have faced severe restrictions in their access to and use of digital media, while governments have exploited digital technologies to suppress freedom of expression and to surveil individuals. The private sector and technology companies in particular have at times facilitated government censorship and surveillance. PEN therefore declares the following:

1. All persons have the right to express themselves freely through digital media without fear of reprisal or persecution.

a. Individuals who use digital media enjoy full freedom of expression protections under international laws and standards.

b. Governments must not prosecute individuals or exact reprisals upon individuals who convey information, opinions, or ideas through digital media.

c. Governments must actively protect freedom of expression on digital media by enacting and enforcing effective laws and standards.

2. All persons have the right to seek and receive information through digital media.

a. Governments should not censor, restrict, or control the content of digital media, including content from domestic and international sources.

b. In exceptional circumstances, any limitations on the content of digital media must adhere to international laws and standards that govern the limits of freedom of expression, such as incitement to violence.

c. Governments should not block access to or restrict the use of digital media, even during periods of unrest or crisis. Controlling access to digital media, especially on a broad scale, inherently violates the right to freedom of expression.

d. Governments should foster and promote full access to digital media for all persons.

3. All persons have the right to be free from government surveillance of digital media.

a. Surveillance, whether or not known by the specific intended target, chills speech by establishing the potential for persecution and the fear of reprisals. When known, surveillance fosters a climate of self-censorship that further harms free expression.

b. As a general rule, governments should not seek to access digital communications between or among private individuals, nor should they monitor individual use of digital media, track the movements of individuals through digital media, alter the expression of individuals, or generally surveil individuals.

c. When governments do conduct surveillance—in exceptional circumstances and in connection with legitimate law enforcement or national security investigations—any surveillance of individuals and monitoring of communications via digital media must meet international due process laws and standards that apply to lawful searches, such as obtaining a warrant by a court order.

d. Full freedom of expression entails a right to privacy; all existing international laws and standards of privacy apply to digital media, and new laws and standards and protections may be required.

e. Government gathering and retention of data and other information generated by digital media, including data mining, should meet international laws and standards of privacy, such as requirements that the data retention be time-limited, proportionate, and provide effective notice to persons affected.

4. The private sector, and technology companies in particular, are bound by the right to freedom of expression and human rights.

a. The principles stated in this declaration equally apply to the private sector.

b. Companies must respect human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, and must uphold these rights even when national laws and regulations do not protect them.

c. Technology companies have a duty to determine how their products, services, and policies impact human rights in the countries in which they intend to operate. If violations are likely, or violations may be inextricably linked to the use of products or services, the companies should modify or withdraw their proposed plans in order to respect human rights.

d. Technology companies should incorporate freedom of expression principles into core operations, such as product designs with built-in privacy protections.

e. If their operations are found to have violated the right to freedom of expression, technology companies should provide restitution to those whose rights were violated, even when governments do not provide remedies.

Adopted by the PEN International Congress

Gyeongju, South Korea

September 2012

Philippine Journalist's Code of Ethics

PHILIPPINE JOURNALIST’S CODE OF ETHICS (1988)

I. I shall scrupulously report and interpret the news, taking care not to suppress essential facts nor to distort the truth by omission or improper emphasis. I recognize the duty to air the other side and to correct substantive errors promptly.

II. I shall not violate confidential information on material given me in the exercise of my calling.

III. I shall resort only to fair and honest methods in my effort to obtain news, photographs and/or documents, and shall properly identify myself as a representative of the press when obtaining any personal interview intended for publication.

IV. I shall refrain from writing reports which will adversely affect a private reputation unless the public interest justifies it. At the same time, I shall fight vigorously for public access to information, as provided for in the Constitution.

V. I shall not let personal motives or interests influence me in the performance of my duties; nor shall I accept or offer any present, gift or other consideration of a nature which may cast doubt on my personal integrity.

VI. I shall not commit any act of plagiarism.

VII. I shall not in any manner ridicule, cast aspersions on, or degrade any person by reason of sex, creed, religious belief, political conviction, cultural and ethnic origin.

VIII. I shall presume persons accused of crime of being innocent until proven otherwise. I shall exercise caution in publishing names of minors and women involved in criminal cases so that they may not unjustly lose their standing in society.

IX. I shall not take unfair advantage of a fellow journalist.

X. I shall accept only as tasks as are compatible with the integrity and dignity of my profession, invoking the “conscience clause” when duties imposed on me conflict with the voice of my conscience.

XI. I shall conduct myself in public or while performing my duties as a journalist in such manner as to maintain the dignity of my profession. When in doubt, decency should be my watchword.

This document was drafted by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), discussed and finalized in a multilateral workshop conference held during the National Press Week of 1988. The conference was attended by representatives from the PPI, National Press Club, Philippine Movement for Press Freedom (PMPF), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (provisional committee), Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa Media sa Pilipinas, Press Foundation of Asia, and Photojournalists Guild of the Philippines. It has been adopted by these and other media organizations, and has been translated into Filipino by the Bukluran ng mga Mamamahayag sa Sariling Wika (BUKLURAN), a PMPF member-organization.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 169-170.

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.

Philippine Declaration for Press Freedom

PHILIPPINE DECLARATION FOR PRESS FREEDOM (1987)

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM is an inalienable birthright of the people which no one can take away without violating a basic human right, and we hold that while facts are inviolable, expression of opinions should be free.

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM is the foundation and guardian of a strong and enlightened public opinion without which democracy cannot be possible, and that the guarantee of this freedom is among the best deterrents to authoritarian governments.

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM is more than the right to express approval of prevailing political structures and dominant political beliefs and policies, for the right belongs as well, if not more, to those who question, who differ, who oppose.

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM is the right of the people to inform and be informed, the people’s right to unhampered reportage and to access to channels of information and opinion, and that this guarantees the people’s right to utilize government-operated media facilities.

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM necessarily encompasses the right of professionals and workers in the mass media to job security, fair compensation, just and humane working conditions and self-organization, as well as the right of media establishments to be protected against undue sanctions from sources of revenue.

WE BELIEVE THAT PRESS FREEDOM and the broader right to freedom of expression concern not only professional, businessmen and workers in the mass media but the people as a whole, and that vigilance for the defense of these freedoms should therefore be a recognized responsibility of the entire body politic.

WE BELIEVE IN PRESS FREEDOM, and we declare our conviction to uphold it. We therefore unite to establish and continue to strengthen a movement for press freedom as an active and effective channel for solidarity and coordination among media people and other citizens in promoting, asserting and defending this basic and inalienable right.

This document was drafted in January 1987 by the organizing committee of the People’s (now Philippine) Movement for Press Freedom and first adopted by the First National Convention for Press Freedom in April 1987. This Declaration has more than 700 individual signatories among Metro Manila and provincial mediapersons by September 1987. Signatories to this Declaration include the National Press Club (by an Annual Convention resolution of May 1990) and all-member organizations of the PMPF (52 as of July 1992) which has this Declaration as the preamble of its constitution.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 160-161

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.

Principles on Reporting Ethnic Tensions

Press Foundation of Asia Principles on Reporting Ethnic Tensions

Reporting Ethnic Tensions

(From IPC: The principles below evolved out of a nine-nations journalism conference conducted by the Press Foundation of Asia in Davao City (Philippines) in April 1970).

1. Factual accuracy in a single story is no substitute for the total truth. A single story which is factually accurate can nonetheless be misleading.

2. Prejudice may sell newspapers but newspapers should resist the temptation to exploit human fears for commercial gains.

3. In mixed societies, editors should be aware of the danger of feeding by selective reporting, common prejudicial stereotypes about groups. Generalisations based on the behaviour of an individual or a small number of individuals are invariably unjust.

4. When there is potential for communal tension, there should be a constant effort to investigate and expose the underlying causes.

5. Statistics can be used to excite passion. It should always be checked and interpreted.

6. All stories of communal, racial or religious nature should be scrupulously ascribed to their source. The authority of the source should be properly evaluated.

7. Advertisements of an unfair discriminating nature should not be accepted.

8. Editors have a responsibility for the tone and truth of the letters' column.

9. Harm can be done by distortion in translation, especially in areas where several languages are spoken. Words and phrases may have different connotations among different groups.

10. It should be recognised that editorial comment, however benign, does not necessarily compensate for the harm done by a misleading news report.

11. Journalists should always use cool and moderate language, especially in headlines and also in display. No concession should be made to rhetoric. Lurid and gory details and emotive reference to past history should be avoided.

12. In mixed societies where extra-territorial loyalties are often alleged and are a cause of tension, great care should be taken about stories imputing interference by a foreign power unless it is clearly established.

13. The traditional newspaper standards of checking for accuracy should be applied with even greater rigour in any stories involving racial, religious or communal groups. Statements should not be accepted at face value from any source, including official ones, and where necessary, these should be accompanied in the news columns by corroboration and interpretation.

14. Unverified rumour is not the proper content of news columns especially when there is great danger in speculation about violence.

15. When there is violence, particular care should be taken about publication of the first incidents.

16. Every effort should be made to portray ethnic groups in other than conflict situations.

17. When violence has broken out, the role of government in the supply of information is crucial. There must be a continuous supply of information from this source to prevent rumour, speculation and needless panic. In these circumstances, a close working relationship between the Press and the Government is essential and there should be no division of interest.

18. Casualty figures can cause chain reactions, and experience has shown that official figures may be under or over estimated.

19. Pictures can distort reality. An unrepresentative picture may lie even more than a news story and add to prejudices.

20. Journalists, particularly foreign correspondents, should not report crises without a sufficient understanding of the background of events and trends.

21. In newspaper groups publishing in different languages, care should be taken that they speak with the same voice on explosive issues and in times of tension. The cumulative effect of differing coverage and opinion is deadly.

22. In mixed societies with underlying causes of tension - social, economic or religious - newspapers and the broadcast media should initiate investigative and interpretative stories with sociological content. These would spread understanding and also help disperse an environment of resentment and suspicion which can turn a minor incident into a riot.

Source: Independent Press Councils

Save the Media Worker

SAVE THE MEDIA WORKER (1989)

1) Work for the media worker’s job security; secure and assert reasonable agreements with media owners on criteria and due process concerning separations;

2) Assert the media worker’s right to self-organization, specifically to form their own strong unions and associations;

3) Stop the killing of journalists and extend assistance to the respective families of our fallen colleagues; and

4) Put an end to the unreasonable press restrictions and stop the harassment of mediapersons.

These four calls / demands were issued by the five-organization Task Force to Save the Media Worker which was formed in March 1989. The campaign for these culminated in a Symposium on Media Workers Conditions on Labor Day, May 1, 1989. Signatories: Ricardo C. Valmonte, President of the Philippine Movement for Press Freedom (PMPF); Antonio Ma. Nieva, Chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP); Marcelo S. Lagmay, president of the National Press Club (NPC); Joel Paredes, chairman of the Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa sa Media ng Pilipinas (KAMMPI) and Arturo Subido, president of the Press Photographers of the Philippines (PPP). The campaign was precipitated by mass layoffs from two newspapers.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 174.

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.

The Principled Journalist

THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST (1991)

1. THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST IS AN HONORABLE CITIZEN who asserts and fully enjoys the rights of citizens and exercise the duties and responsibilities of citizens and who should not abdicate them in the illusory framework of “media neutrality”. Journalists like other Filipino citizens have the duty to assert Philippine sovereignty and the socio-economic and political interests of the democratic majority of the people, link up closely with other organizations of citizens, and avail themselves of rights of the rights of the citizens to form associations for purposes not contrary to law and to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances. Principled journalists, as all honorable citizens, deserve the respect of the bigger community, and keep away from decadent and anti-social behavior.

2. THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST IS A PUBLIC SERVANT in the context of the media’s functions to serve the people’s right to know and the people’s right to express their grievances, demands and opinions, in a situation where the media are being used today more by vested interests to keep the public uninformed about or distracted from the most important truths affecting them. Principled journalists would never allow themselves to be used as mercenaries.

3. THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST IS A PROFESSIONAL who values the question of ethics, the urge and actual efforts for skills upgrading and career development, and “does homework” for quality stories that adequately serve the people’s right to know and the people’s right to express their grievances, demands and opinions.

4. THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST IS A WORKER, and struggles for collective job security, fair compensation, just and humane working conditions, the right to form strong and genuine trade union organizations, the right to bargain collectively and to strike if necessary. Principled journalists take the stand of the working press.

5. THE PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST IS A LEADER, on two levels: (a) public opinion leadership for nationalism, humanism and democracy; and (b) activity in organizations of mediapersons as leaders or dependable members, as distinguished from journalists who are absolutely constricted in day-to-day requirements of the occupation as set by their superiors, and who help the media people’s organizations on one-shot, case-to-case or sympathy levels.

This 5-point description was first presented by Ed Aurelio Reyes, secretary general of the Philippine Movement for Press Freedom (PMPF), in a message to the 2nd Congress of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) held in August 1991. The NUJP Congress unanimously passed a resolution adopting these points as the organization’s criteria and standard of behavior for its members. As endorsed by NUJP, the PMPF-sponsored Fifth National Convention for Press Freedom adopted it and resolved to campaign for its acceptance by the broader Philippine media community.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 170-171

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.

Editor's Commitment to the People's Right to Know

EDITOR’S COMMITMENT TO THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO KNOW (1988)

WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES in our capacity as editors of print and broadcast facilities to reaffirm our advocacy of the universal human right to freedom of the press. It is a freedom that encompasses the people’s right to inform and to be informed, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

WE FULLY SUBSCRIBE to the third and fourth paragraphs of the 1987 Philippine Declaration for Press Freedom, which state that this freedom is “the people’s right to unhampered reportage and to channels of information and opinion…” and that this freedom “is more than the right to express approval of prevailing political structures and dominant political beliefs and policies, for the right belongs as well, if not more, to those who question, who differ, who oppose.”

UPHOLDING THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE is both a crucial requisite to the building of a working democracy as well as a deterrent to the restoration of authoritarian rule. We therefore commit ourselves, individually and collectively, to give adequate space, time and prominence to matters of urgent public concern such as: (a) persisting or even officially-tolerated health and environmental hazards; (b) economic conditions and policies relevant to the broad populace; (c) official policies and acts of commission or omission by government that adversely affect substantial segments of the citizenry; and (d) responses to these matters from private citizens or group of citizens.

WE RESOLVE TO DO SO and consider it our contribution to human rights advocacy in this part of the world, for the sake of the Filipino people whose interests we seek to cherish and to serve.

This text was penned in December 1987 by the now deceased Alfredo Navarro Salanga, first chairman of the PMPF Task Force for the People’s Right to Know, and signed by the 71 editors of eight dailies and six other publications in Metro Manila. It was formally presented at the PMPF-sponsored Round Table Conference on the Media and the People’s Right to Know held on August 6, 1988 as one of pre-conferences that culminated at the Second National Convention for Press Freedom held at the end of that month. The commitment was signed by senior and junior editors of Ang Pilipino Ngayon, Balita, Bulletin, Chronicle, Inquirer, Malaya, Manila Standard, and Manila Times, as well as those of Philippine Agenda, Dispatch, Philippine News & Features, Filipino Journalist, We Forum / Masa, and Press Freedom Advocate. It is both an individual commitment and a collective commitment, the latter providing the basis for the formation of an organization of editors along the lines of this advocacy.

Source: The book “Press Freedom: The People’s Right” by Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, pp. 172-173

Retyped for information campaign by: Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.