Should government officials be penalized for spreading fake news or misinformation?
This emerged Thursday as Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque assailed a proposed law seeking to penalize “fake news,” saying this would take away the public’s right to judge for themselves the veracity of any information.
Roque, who said he attended the Senate hearing on fake news “in his personal capacity,” reiterated his stand that Senator Grace Poe’s proposed law, Senate Bill 1680, was unconstitutional.
“To begin with, there should be no law abridging freedom of expression. Any law which will criminalize fake news will obviously be a violation [because] it is a law that will abridge freedom of expression,” Roque said.
Roque added: “What is the importance of regulating fake news? It’s because we want to uphold the truth.
“If the objective is to uphold the truth, it does not matter if it’s a legitimate journalist or a blogger that spreads false news. And that’s why my position is [that] there is no basis for singling out that only government employees should have liability when they spread false news.”
But Poe said government officials must be held to a higher standard.
Unlike an ordinary citizen, she said government employees were required to submit Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth, among others.
Poe said: “I think that you agree that government employees, such as us, are held to a higher standard. There are certain things we are liable for.
“We need to present SALN [while] an ordinary citizen [does] not.
“We can be charged graft with plunder, they cannot unless they connive with us. There are certain things expected of us because we have waived that certain right because we are serving the people.”
Poe advised Roque to just attend a separate committee on the bill, which will be handled by opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as chair of the civil service, government reorganization, and professional regulation.
Roque had said he would resign if Poe’s bill would become a law.