The Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) has sparked much controversy in the past few weeks. The bill was originally introduced in 2010, but due to lack of quorum, was not passed. Recently, the FOI bill has incited debate between legislators and members of the press regarding whether or not it…
Tag: Freedom of Information Bill
PHILIPPINES: Freedom of Speech Gets a Criminal Record
The Philippines has introduced yet another law restricting freedom of speech, causing the Human Right Watch (HRW) to call for an appeal. The Cybercrime Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Aquino earlier this September, drastically increases punishment for criminal libel, raising the minimum sentence twelve-fold, from six…
PHILIPPINES: A Country Less Open Than It Seems
For a country touted as a free-wheeling democracy offering a vast array of non-governmental media, the endless debate over how much press and information it needs is profoundly depressing. It has been two and a half decades since the last dictatorship and yet some fundamental media issues remain to be…