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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Malilong: Alternative to libel
By Frank Malilong Jr.
The Other Side
Much capital is being made, in the bid to decriminalize libel, of the filing of criminal cases filed by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo against 42 members of media.
The number of respondents may indeed appear unusual, especially to those who are not familiar with the law on libel. In fact, Arroyo filed only six or seven cases but the number of respondents totaled 42 because the Revised Penal Code says that in libel, not only the author is liable but also the publisher, editor and business manager of the publication where the libelous item was printed. If the libel is committed on radio or television, the station manager shall likewise be punished.
But let us grant that the seven libel cases are unusually high for a public figure like the First Gentleman. Is it enough reason to abolish the law that gave him the right to sue?
In answer to that let me ask, would we have preferred that Arroyo instead hired assassins to eliminate his tormentors in media? Would it have been more acceptable if he just had his critics kidnapped, murdered and then dumped in some isolated place in Cavite?
“The enjoyment of a private reputation,” says the Supreme Court in a leading case, “is as much a constitutional right as the possession of life, liberty or property. It is one of those rights necessary to human society that underlie the whole scheme of civilization.
The law recognizes the value of such reputation” and punishes anyone who attacks it with imprisonment for a period of between six months, one day and four years, two months.
And now we want this law removed from the statute books, claiming that the criminal characterization of libel constitutes an unnecessary restraint on a free media. We should be allowed to police our ranks, we say, or if must be allowed to intervene, it has to be limited to awarding civil liability for damages only.
We must note, however, that libel law is intended to protect someone’s honor and reputation from unjustified attack regardless of where it comes from. If a neighbor calls your wife a prostitute, shouldn’t she be punished criminally because that would limit her freedom of expression?
Or are we claiming that media is a republic unto itself whose members are subject to a set of standards different from ordinary mortals otherwise we would not be able to carry out our duty to inform as freely and as effectively?
Being charged with libel is admittedly inconvenient and unpleasant to a newsman. I should know. I had my first and only libel suit at the age of 18 and spent countless sleepless nights dreading what life in jail would be.
But the experience, I’d like to believe, made me a better person or, at the very least, a living one. I was a penniless college sophomore at that time and couldn’t afford to pay damages. What if, knowing this and that he couldn’t have me jailed because there was no law that says he could, he simply had ordered me killed?
Between being sued criminally and being the subject of a crime for something that you wrote, the choice is obvious.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 19, 2006 issue)
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