Case Digest: Rappler, Inc. v.

Bautista
Posted on May 24, 2016
Rappler, Inc. v. Andres Bautista
G.R. No. 222702 April 5, 2016

(constitutional law; freedom of the press)

FACTS

Rappler, Inc. signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to sponsor the

Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates. Alleging that it is being
discriminated particularly as regards the MOA provisions on live audio
broadcast via online streaming, Rappler argues that the MOA grants radio
stations the right to simultaneously broadcast live the audio of the debates,
even if the radio stations are not obliged to perform any obligation under the
MOA. However, the right to broadcast by online live streaming the audio of the
debates is denied to the petitioner and other online media entities which also
have the capacity to live stream the audio of the debates.

Rappler filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition against COMELEC

Chairman Andres Bautista to nullify MOA provisions on the ground of violating
the fundamental rights protected under the Constitution.

ISSUE

Whether petitioner has the right to live stream the debates

RULING

Yes, Rappler has the right to live stream the debates because the exercise to
do so is its contractual right under the MOA. Under the MOA, as long as it
complies with the copyright conditions for the debates, it can live stream the
debates.

The MOA recognizes the right of other mass media entities, not parties to the
MOA, to reproduce the debates subject to the same copyright conditions. The
freedom of the press to report and disseminate the live audio can no longer be
infringed or subject to prior restraint. Such freedom of the press to report and
disseminate the live audio of the debates is now protected and guaranteed
under Section 4, Article III of the Constitution, which provides that, “No law
shall be passed abridging the freedom…of the press.”

The petition was partially granted. The COMELEC Chairman was directed to
allow the debates to be shown or live streamed unaltered on the petitioner’s
website subject to the copyright condition that the source is clearly indicated.