The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has convicted Baguio City-based journalist Frank Cimatu for cyber libel over a Facebook post against former agriculture chief Manny Piñol. READ:
QC RTC Branch 93 Judge Evangeline Cabochan-Santos sentenced Cimatu to six months and one day to five years and five months in prison.Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros pushed to decriminalize libel, saying the present libel laws have been used and abused to suppress the freedom of the press in the country.
“Accused made it appear that during the bird flu outbreak, Piñol, who, at the time the Facebook post was published, the secretary of DA, committed corrupt acts and gained P21 million in six months,” it added. “Accused failed to show any proof that his post was done in good faith, this notwithstanding, being afforded with all the opportunity to ventilate his defenses and pieces of evidence in the present action. In view of his option to waive the presentation of evidence, the accused failed to prove that he made further research on the matter before making the Facebook post,’ the court cited.
“These journalists have wasted years of their lives facing charges for doing their jobs. Cyber libel has been used to silence our journalists. If we don’t correct this, libel will continue to be used to take away our freedom,” Hontiveros said.
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