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The Supreme Court today upheld much of the Cybercrime Law including Internet libel, even as lawmakers were issuing assurances that they intend to decriminalize libel – by removing the jail sentences and retaining the fines.
Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te explained that Internet libel could only be filed against “the original author of the post.” It cannot be filed against those “who simply receive, post, react to the [message].”
This seems to mean that retweeting a libelous statement or reposting it on Facebook is not libel.
In other words,
And the irony? The decision comes on the the eve of the 28th anniversary of People Power, when Filipinos decided to break the shackles of a dictatorship and chase a despot from office.
The Supreme Court has taken a step towards bringing back that era of repression.
And irony of ironies, the son of the icon of democracy (President Benigno Aquino III) and the widower of one of the major champions of Edsa (House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte) played midwives to the efforts.
To be sure, the Supreme Court tried to curb the effects of libel by stating that only the one who posted the piece can be sued. But given the kind of politicians we have, this won’t be enough to protect legitimate dissent.
We all know how libel suits work in real life. The Supreme Court did not put sufficient safeguards.
This is how a libel suit meant to harass works. First the complainant will usually file the case in a court far from where the defendant lives (the filing fee is P1,000 — chicken feed to politicians grown fat on public funds). This will keep the defendant shuttling around, spending money on travel, wasting time, preventing the defendant from earning a living. The Supreme Court decision will allow libel suits to be filed in the most remote places because politicians can claim that the libel was first viewed in Tawi-Tawi, for instance, or Cagayan or Palawan. The one being sued for libel will have to commute to those remote places every time there is a hearing. Non appearance will result in losing the case, being fined and jailed.
Second, the complainant himself or herself will not show up in court — his or her lawyers will do that — after all, that’s the advantage of being wealthy, right? Big media companies usually have lawyers to take care of libel cases, but what about bloggers, Facebook commenters or citizens who Tweet?
Historically, libel suits in the Philippines are mainly the weapon of the powerful and the rich against those whose only weapons are words.
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