The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) renewed their call for decriminalization of Libel following the arrest of Amado “Jake”Macasaet, the publisher of Malaya newspaper.
Macasaet was arrested by Manila Regional Court for the crime of Libel sued by Formal Rizal Governor Casimiro Ynarez Jr. and Governor Secretary Narcisso Santiago.
The Libel case originated from Macasaet’s articles alleging that Ynares used his public position to hide rival cockfighting aficionados and for critizing Santiago from his “gamblig habits.”
CEGD and other advocates , particularly the National Union of Jouranalist of the Philippines want the Libel to “decriminalized” for it intimidate and harass the media people.
Source:
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/118405/Decriminalize-libel-now-CEGP-urges-Congress
New York-based committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international media watch dog group, yesterday condemned the conviction of the Daily Tribune publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares for Libel.
“We condemned the prison sentence given to Ninez Cacho-Olivares and hope that the conviction is overtuned on appeal. It is high for a democratic country like the Philippines to remove the threat of imprisonment for journalists by decriminalizing libel,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.
CMFR said that the six month to two years imprisonment sentence imposed by the Judge Winlove Dumayas of Branch 59 of the Makati Regional Trial Court ignores a Supreme Court memorandum urging the imposition of fines rather than prison terms on journalists convicted to libel.
A fine of over P 5 million was charge to Cacho-Olivares to pay and many believe that is excessive and it underscores the truth and it abridges press freedom and comprises the democratic dialog.
The imprisonment was said to be a constraint on press reporting and fair comment. The threat of crippling fines has also had the same effect. Both will continue to threaten press freedom and free expression in the Philippines, but in Cacho-Olivares’s case her article was never contested from truth.
The libel cases was filed by F. Arthur Villaraza against Olivares, who in 2003 had written about “The Firm” as being singled out by the Ombudsman in handling cases related to the NAIA Terminalk\ 3 contracts. It was also identified that “The Firm” was the personal lawyers of the president and very much involved in the first family’s legal concerns.
