THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists in the Philippines (Davao City
Chapter) strongly condemns the arrest and detention of Cagayan de
Oro journalists Herbie Gomez of GoldStar Daily and Joey Nacalaban
of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro on May 7 for libel. The NUJP is also alarmed
over the libel cases being filed with seeming impunity against members
of the Cagayan de Oro media.
While some may view the filing of the case as an appropriate way
to redress the grievance of the complainant, Tangub City Mayor Jennifer
Tan, (after all, journalists in other areas are not being sued—they
are being murdered), it was meant to do the same thing: instill fear
in the hearts of journalists so that they won't be able to perform
their duty to report and criticize official actions. The libel charge
against Gomez, Nacalaban, and GoldStar Daily's Ozamiz City bureau
chief Marife Dorona, therefore, is a classic case of harassment and
repression of the media.
This case also brought to our attention the predicament of the Cagayan
de Oro press, where officials have found in the libel statute a convenient
weapon to harass its members. According to a report in Gold Star Daily,
DXCO station manager Jonas Bustamante has been charged with more than
50 counts of libel for his commentary against city and police officials.
The officials he has been criticizing promised to file 100 more libel
cases.
It doesn't help that officials such as Cagayan de Oro mayor Vicente
Emano, himself the subject of Bustamante's on-air criticisms, would
issue statements like this (as quoted in the GoldStar Daily report),
"It's only right to discipline broadcasters who don't watch their
mouths." Statements such as this only encourage attacks on the
press.
NUJP maintains that the public, the consumers of news from print
and broadcast, are the final arbiter of the media's or a journalist's
fate. They alone have the right—and the responsibility—to
"discipline" the press, not by filing criminal charges,
not by assassination. If the public thinks that a newspaper or a radio
station has lost its credibility, then it will stop buying the newspaper
and stop listening to the broadcast. Eventually, the newspaper or
the radio station will realize that its lack of credibility is its
own worst enemy and that it either strives to gain that credibility
or it will perish. It is as simple as that.
But short of repelling the libel law from our statutes, the case
in Cagayan de Oro strengthens the NUJP's position that our libel law
should be decriminalized. Decriminalizing will rid the libel law,
at least partly, of its repressive element.
The principle of law is to make citizens responsible for their actions.
Our libel law, on the other hand, has always been used to exact revenge
against journalists and to muzzle them. This is done with such impunity
that it now appears that vengeance and intimidation are precisely
the intent of the libel law, not to make responsible citizens out
of journalists.
How can a law that puts journalists behind bars serve the interest
of press freedom, let alone the public?
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