The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that no violations of the right to free speech were committed during a House of Representatives inquiry on the spread of fake news, which invited several vloggers as resource persons.
The decision stemmed from a petition filed by several online content creators seeking to prohibit the House from requiring them to attend legislative inquiries involving their social media posts.
The vloggers in their petition argued that the inquiries violated their right to free speech and claimed that the proceedings aimed to silence and regulate their social media content, creating a ‘chilling effect’ on free expression.
However, the SC in a 31-page decision dismissed this, stating that their invitation ‘had no relation at all to their exercise of free speech.’
‘The mere act of inviting Abines et al. as resource persons to an inquiry in aid of legislation did not violate their freedom of expression, as it had no relation at all to their exercise of free speech,’ the decision read.
‘It did not, at the very least, regulate the content of their speech or its incidents,’ it further stated.
The High Court also noted that being invited as resource persons simply meant that they were to aid the House in crafting legislation.
‘In other words, the issuance of summons is a matter of procedure to effectively exercise the power of Congress to conduct its legislative inquiry. It was neither a punitive measure in relation to free speech nor an attempt to suppress it,’ the SC said.
Due to this, the SC ruled that the perceived ‘chilling effect’ by the petitioners had ‘no leg to stand on’ as there was no restraint to freedom of expression made.
Despite this, the High Court acknowledged that there were some instances where the inquisition by some lawmakers appeared ‘unduly harsh and derogatory.’
‘Albeit it is not the province of the Court to chastise or in any way discipline Members of Congress, we find it apropos, in line with our mandate as guardians of people’s rights, to remind that resource speakers are not only guaranteed their constitutional rights during inquiries in aid of legislation,’ the SC said.
‘They also deserve a reasonable expectation that the legislators conducting the inquiries will accord them courtesy and respect befitting that of any dignified human being,’ it added.