Rep. Satur Ocampo on Monday speaks to reporters at the House of Representatives. He said he and his fellow representatives who are being arrested by the PNP will not surrender if they are not shown a legal warrant of arrest. They would stay overnight Monday in the House premises because they can be forcibly arrested outside. Rep. Crispin Beltran, who was arrested earlier, at his inquest in Camp Crame on Monday. A protester in UP Diliman shows a photo of the late President Marcos melded with that of President Arroyo.Photos by Mike Perez and Roger Rañada

SAMAHANG PLARIDEL

It’s a travesty of our history that we have to argue the inviolability of the freedom of speech and expression, familiarly known as the freedom of the press, in a free, democratic and open society.

In the 19th century, Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar (Plaridel), Graciano Lopez Jaena and other illustrious Filipinos exiled themselves, formed the Propaganda Movement, published La Solidaridad, fought as writers, forebears of journalists, for Filipino freedom. Inherent in the struggle was the freedom of the press.

In the 14 years of martial rule, Filipino journalists, along with the freedom fighters, wrote, again in exile, while those who remained in the country did so clandestinely—as virtual exiles.

Today, Proclamation 1017 patently exiles journalists through censorship and in doing so banishes in exile the bedrock liberty of a democratic society.

The government’s imposition of "standards," intimidating sectors in the media into asking for "guidelines" from the government, is without precedent in a democracy. It is not even sanctioned by our Constitution, which provides that even under martial law, civil liberties will be respected. History clearly shows that civil liberties are irreparably impaired without press freedom.

History shows that a free and independent press is a conservative rather than a disruptive force of a free society. The press does not subvert but instead promotes democracy that by freely reporting on events and freely and vigorously commenting on them, it enables a free people to protect itself from the inevitable abuse of power. A free press is the people’s defense against deception, intimidation and subjugation from forces inimical to their welfare.

Only in despotic regimes is a free press considered a subversive force, for it is subversive of the arbitrary exercise of power, subversive of conditions that "exalt the few over the degradation of the many," subversive of the despotism of armed duplicity.

Let lawyers and constitutionalists argue the legal merits of Proclamation 1017.

We in Plaridel need no arguments to justify the freedom of the press. We find it degrading to have to argue for a sacrosanct freedom that is the shining mark of civil society and the one guarantor of every ma’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

A government, nay, a free society, that cannot see this has already enslaved itself.