Case Digest: ABS-CBN vs. COMELEC – GR 133486; Jan. 28, 2000

     Freedom of Expression | Constitutional Law


Facts:

Comelec Resolution No. 98-14191 approved a restraining order against ABS-CBN and other groups prohibiting them from conducting an exit survey during the national elections.

The information suggested that ABS-CBN's exit survey could conflict with the official Comelec count and Namfrel's unofficial quick count. 

The court granted a Temporary Restraining Order prayed by ABS-CBN, suspending the implementation of the resolution.

Media outlets conducted the exit polls without encountering any issues.

Issue:

WoN the Comelec can ban the holding of exit polls and the dissemination of their results through mass media.

Held:  

The freedoms of speech and of the press should all the more be upheld when what is sought to be curtailed is the dissemination of information meant. to add meaning to the equally vital right of suffrage. 

 When faced with borderline situations in which the freedom of a candidate or a party to speak or the freedom of the electorate to know is invoked against actions allegedly made to assure clean and free elections, this Court shall lean in favor of freedom

There can be no free and honest elections if, in the efforts to maintain them, the freedom to speak and the right to know are unduly curtailed.

In order to justify a restriction of the people's freedoms of speech and of the press, the state's responsibility of ensuring orderly voting must far outweigh them.

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