PRESS RELEASE
Office of Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr.
12 November 2008
REVILLA FILES CLOSED CAPTION BILL
To ensure equal access of deaf Filipinos to public information, Senator Bong Revilla today filed a bill that would require all,televis!on ne!works to put closed captions in their news programs.
In his speech during the National Conference on Sustainable Partnership1for Deaf Transformation held today (Wednesday, November 12, 2008) at the Ople Hall of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the senator said there is an estimated 4.5 million deaf Filipinos, most of them poor,who have no access to programs that will help them realize their full potentials. "This is a very sad reality and government makes it worse by turning a blind eye to this fact. Thisis our biggest hurdle, and we will transcend this if we, the private sector and the government, work
together and share in this responsibility," said Revilla, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media.
Revilla stressed that all Filipinos should have equal rights guaranteed under the Constitution. "One of these rights that particularly elude the deaf is access to information. We must uphold Section . 7 of our Constitution that says the right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized," he explained.
In pushing for an equal access to public information of deaf and hard of hearing Filipinos, Revilla simultaneously filed Senate Bill 2872 that would oblige all franchise holders or operators of television networks or stations and producers of television news programs to have these news programs broadcast with closed caption.
Closed-captioning refers to the method of subtitling television programs by coding statements as vertical interval data signal that are decoded at the receiver and superimposed at the bottom of the television screen.
Under the bill, any owner or operator of television networks or stations and any producer of television news programs who shall violate the requirement shall be punished by a fine of not less than Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00) but not more than One Hundred Thousand Pesos (PlOO,OOO.OOo) or ,by imprisonment of not less than six (6) months but not more than one (1) year or both such fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
If the offender is a corporation, partnership or association, or any other judicial person, the president, manager, administrator or the person-in-charge of the management of the business shall be liable therefore. In addition, the license or permit to operate the business shall be cancelled.
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"The passage of this bill will address the constitutional mandate for the state to recognize the basic right of the people to information on matters of public concern," Revilla pointed out.
English close caption is important for deafies to read and learn. Like dvd movie still has close caption. You don't use pirated dvd because its english is not good. Original dvd ensures exact english to help deafies. :)
ReplyDeleteI also need closed caption becuase of am deaf and cannot heard to understand. For TV news or Commerial, just suggest that new channel for Deafies group so they (deafies) can watch TV news or Commerical. They profit to grow communicate with hearing people and develop good in english through have help close caption.
ReplyDeleteRead on how is captioning done in:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ncicap.org/acapintro.asp
An interesting angle to this too is if they will use English or Tagalog for the close captions.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience in working with media people who conduct interviews in SDEAS, I always try to convince them to either have an interpreter's box or close captions for their shows or segments where they feature Deaf people.
BUT....this is what they have to say:
1. Putting an interpreter's box or close captions will not look good for the visuals of the show
2. Putting close captions in English will not match the spoken language of the host or interviewer/interviewee on local television which uses Tagalog
3. Putting close captions using English will not match the audience of the show who are from middle to low income group who prefer Tagalog.
Really, it's difficult to convince media people. Once, there was a reporter who was able to convince the executive producer to put captions but it's in Tagalog.
Beyond the approving the bill, I think there should be an education component that would explain to people why there is a need for close captions.
These are exciting times! :)
What JXB has to say...
ReplyDeleteIt's about time! :)
Next question is: do we have the technology for real-time captioning? Will these TV stations be willing to spend for this new technology?
How can SDEAS contribute to the passing and implementation of this bill? This is another realm of access for the Deaf, totally different from interpreting. Should we open up a training center for captionist? :)
I hope the Deaf community will again unite for this cause, especially our Deaf in CSB.
What Lovella has to say...
ReplyDeleteclosed caption must be good for the visual of the show. just use the black background and white letters... i agreed with ms. noemi what she said.... add CC with movie and tv commercial, news and tv billboard in road :)
from RJ...
ReplyDeleteyeah...i agreed with ms. noemi.its good for them but i suggest only, not full black, only transparent like light background with front strong white.
from GG...
ReplyDeletewow sel, finally it will be a reality. even before i left it was one of the wishes of the Deaf. i remember attending a meeting about this somewhere in QC. magksama pa kami nila noon ni tess buenaventura, liza martinez at ge. sana nga magkatotoo na. dito sa states no problem ang CC. kaso dapt magaling ang mag CC nyan sa taglish at pagtata type hehe kasi kahit ito minsan may typo errors pa baka di lang masyadong narining ang sinabi nung announcer
CC is really good for the Deaf. It would help them understand what has been spoken and discussed on TV. I suggest the CC must be in English for the Deaf to read through sign. But for those Deaf who are not schooling, they could still cannot benefit from the bill. I am hoping that the bill will be implemented.
ReplyDelete