Soriano v. Laguardia
GR 164785, April 29, 2009
Doctrine: Clear and present danger doctrine: freedom of speech and of press is susceptible of restriction when and only when necessary to prevent grave and immediate danger to interests which the government may lawfully protect. Balancing of interest test: it is the courts function in a case before it when it finds public interests served by legislation, on the one hand, and the free expression clause affected by it, on the other, to balance one against the other and arrive at a judgment where the greater weight shall be placed. If, on balance, it appears that the public interest served by restrictive legislation is of such nature that it outweighs the abridgment of freedom, then the court will find the legislation valid.
Facts: Complaints were filed against Ang Dating Daan host / Overall Servant Eliseo Soriano for cuss words he used during the a broadcast.nMTRCB preventively suspended the Ang Dating Daan program for 20 days. Soriano filed a petition to nullify the suspension order. MTRC: Soriano guilty, penalty of 3 months suspension.
Issue: Whether Soriano can invoke religious freedom, submitting that what he uttered was religious speech?
Held: NO. There is nothing in petitioners statements subject of the complaints expressing any particular religious belief, nothing furthering his avowed evangelical mission. His words in context show that he was moved by anger and the need to seek retribution, not by any religious conviction.Expressions by means of newspapers, radio, television, and motion pictures clause. come within the broad protection of the free speech and expression. The limits of the freedom of expression are reached when it touches upon matters of essentially private concern. Unprotected speech or low-value expression refers to libelous statements, obscenity or pornography, false or misleading advertisement, insulting or fighting words, i.e., those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace and expression endangering national security. Prior restraint means official government restrictions on the press or other forms of expression in advance of actual publication or dissemination.
Exceptions to prior restraint are movies, television, and radio broadcast censorship in view of its access to numerous people, including the young who must be insulated from the prejudicial effects of unprotected speech. The problem with the challenged statements is that they were uttered in a TV program that is rated G or for general viewership, and in a time slot that would likely reach even the eyes and ears of children. A content-based restraint is aimed at the contents or idea of the expression. A content-neutral restraint intends to regulate the time, place, and manner of the expression under welldefined standards tailored to serve a compelling state interest, without restraint on the message of the expression. The suspension MTRCB imposed under the premises was, in one perspective, permissible restriction. Soriano is deemed to have yielded his right to his full enjoyment of his freedom of speech to regulation under PD 1986 and its IRR as television station owners, program producers, and hosts have impliedly accepted the power of MTRCB to regulate the broadcast industry. The freedom of television and radio broadcasting is somewhat lesser in scope than the freedom accorded to newspaper and print media.