[In the news] On sub judice and gag orders – RAPPLER.com
by Edsel Tupaz, RAPPLER.com
January 26, 2012
On Monday, an ABS-CBN news flash announced the House prosecutors’ plan to launch a social media campaign “to inform the public on latest developments in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.”
But Rep Romero “Miro” Quimbo, a spokesperson for the prosecution, was quick to admit that the plan was, in part, a reaction to the defense’s own social media. He was fearful that the prosecution, in his own words, is “getting left behind.”
The defense, through their own spokespersons and lawyers Tranquil Salvador III and Karen Jimeno, seems to have joined Quimbo at least in principle, stating that spokespersons of the defense and prosecution alike ought to inform the “ordinary people” about the “procedures” of the impeachment trial and “enhance public participation.”
Regardless of one’s angle or position, any social media campaign will implicate a parallel debate on who really is covered by the “gag order” issued by the Senate sitting as an impeachment court.
No less than Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile, the presiding official, has warned the chamber (and, arguably, the public at large) that those who violate the impeachment court’s orders or rules may be cited for contempt.
A number of positions have been expressed by at least four camps – the prosecution, the defense, the Senate itself, and Malacañang spokesmen. Even between and among the senators there seems to be a weak consensus as to who is covered. Neither is there agreement on the very nature and substance of the speech that is prohibited or allowed.
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