Escape to Liechtenstein! For news directors, editors, anchors, reporters: Did you restrain yourselves when you were handed the “breaking” news of the arrest w an effort to verify it or did you mindlessly blurt it out like parrots and parakeets? Take today’s quiz given to UPCMC Law on Media and Comm students

on mobile, type “Listen in browser” before takeoff…

WordPress Daily Prompt: If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?

Answer: Escape to Liechtenstein ✈️!

For news directors, editors, anchors, reporters: Did you restrain yourselves when you were handed the “breaking” news of the arrest with an effort to verify it or did you mindlessly blurt it out like parrots and parakeets?

Take today’s quiz given to UPCMC Law on Media and Comm students

EXERCISE administered to class members today:

Many probably want their airport boarding and flight to be a rom-com movie scene or (romance-comedy genre) narrative,

(image by Universal Pictures, used here non-commercially for academic purposes)

but at yesterday’s KLM flight to Vienna, a few minutes before takeoff,

the airline pilot captain received a call from the airport control tower and  –

— like in an action suspense movie –

— stopped the liftoff,  summoned the crew, and asked them to identify a passenger, former U.P. Law professor Harry Roque,  based on a photo sent by the airport control tower

(production designer Lester would probably have suggested, let’s have the airplane roll down the runway 10 meters then five airport police cars with wang-wang race down and block the path of the airplane, anyway we already have cars here)

   The conversation between the airline pilot captain and Harry Roque resulted in the latter being “deplaned”,

with many versions as to the reasons of the offloading none of which the media checked and verified.

      Abante tabloid news reported in breaking news format that the latter had been arrested, which was aired and posted by many news organizations except the more reputable ones.

       The media content on the supposed arrest which turned out to be a plane offloading is the subject of this week’s exercise: a tool to compel class members to see the relevance of class topics and to apply legal concepts to the practice of the profession:

Based on last week’s and today’s topic in Law on Media and Communication, “Right of the Accused against Publicity that Imperils the Presumption of Innocence versus the Right of a Free Media” please examine the following notes in answering this exercise with quiz action at the end:

1.The concept of sub judicé (literally, “before the court” ) as a gag rule on the media is of English common law jury system in origin, where members of the jury are part of the community and, except for a short briefing and some advisories, are not trained in the rules of evidence and criminal procedure, and may be easily swayed in their judgment by what they see and hear in their  surroundings. Therefore, the sub judicé rule in a jury system is a way of restraining the media in its coverage of ongoing criminal trials.  (the Philippines is not a jury system).

2.When there is an actual criminal litigation that is ongoing, the life and liberty of the accused hang on the balance and the accused is in jeopardy of losing everything depending on the outcome of the trial. Therefore, sometimes,  the judge in his/her/their discretion, would consider the following principles on “prejudicial publicity” (commonly called “trial by publicity”) to assess the situation:

Forms of “prejudicial publicity” :

     a.Too much unnecessary publicity (frequent publicizing of the alleged crimes of the accused even if there is no new development in the case)

     b.Sensationalism (Graphic description of the details of the alleged crime)

     c.Vigilantism (when the journalist takes on a personal crusade to ensure that the accused is convicted)

     d.Publication or dissemination of inadmissible evidence (the publication of priors or prior convictions that have nothing to do with the case; publishing the following: hearsay evidence or say-so of non-witnesses, illegally recorded conversations, results of lie-detector tests, purported “evidence” that is not on the evidence list or not to be presented in court, etc.)  

In the opinion of the undersigned, when applied priorly, or as a form of gag rule, or as form of prior restraint, it should be applied to ongoing criminal trials and only to ongoing criminal trials, and strictly construed in favor of the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.

     Based on the foregoing, is the reporting by Abante, re-posted and disseminated by some news media outlets and many netizens, of the supposed arrest which turned out to be a deplaning, a form of sub judice, or prejudicial publicity, as discussed above? Explain your answer using the concepts discussed in the course pack and summarized here (the class member must show that he/she/they are applying legal concepts as discussed) in at least 100 words. (10 pts)

     BONUS QUESTION. BONUS, BONUS, Please take advantage of the bonus question: In any case, were any of the other laws taken up in class in the ENTIRE SEMESTER violated by the reporting of a falsehood? Explain in at least 100 words. (ADDITIONAL 10pts, Bonus)