S enate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said media practitioners should respect the right to reply of candidates and the people during the 2010 elections which is embodied under the Fair Elections Law.

Whether Congress approves or not the pending right to reply bill, Senator Pimentel said the protagonists in the electoral process can already avail of that right under the said existing law.

“There is already a law for that. When a candidate is hit by his opponent or anyone  in the mass media during the election campaign, that offended party has the right to make that reply under the Fair Election Law,”  Senator Pimentel told the Newsstand Forum at the Ambassador Hotel in Malate, Manila.

Under the Fair Election Law, he said the offended party can lodge a complaint with the Commission on Elections if the media organization concerned would refuse to print or air his side of the controversy. The Comelec is empowered to impose sanctions or penalties for violators of this law.

Senator Pimentel said the right to equal time and space under the Fair Election Law is an explicit recognition of the people’s right to reply as part of the freedom of the press and of expression enshrined under the Constitution.