THE College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) has hailed the acquittal of former University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio Outcrop Editor in Chief Jesusa Paquibot in the libel case filed against her by a UP professor in 2011.
CEGP said the court rendered a landmark decision that upholds the freedom of the campus press.
The Regional Trial Court in Baguio City cleared Paquibot of libel, after it found that the lampoon article from which the case stemmed is not defamatory.
Moreover, the prosecution failed to prove actual malice.
Defamation and malicious intent are among the requisites for an article to be considered libelous by a court of law.
“After five long years, the case against Paquibot has been finally put to rest. We laud the court for coming up with its favorable decision, as we believe that libel is an instrument to infringe on the civil and political rights of the people, more specifically journalists,” said Jose Mari Callueng, CEGP national president.
In line with the recent victory, Callueng maintained that libel should have been decriminalized a long time ago.
“Libel is inconsistent with press freedom and democracy, in general. The existence of libel as a criminal offense can only result in media groups, including the campus press, exercising self-censorship, which jeopardizes, first and foremost, the freedom of the press, speech and, expression and, ultimately, the right of the people to know. The Guild stands firm that libel must be decriminalized,” Callueng said.
1 comment
Malice is hard to prove …..
What is sad is it took so many years to resolved the case.