In the press statement of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on the indictment of blogger Rey Joseph “RJ” Nieto for cyber libel, he said, “Nieto will now be brought to trial and face a penalty of at least prision correccional or imprisonment from 6 months to one year to 6 years should he be adjudged guilty of libel.”
This is what we have been fighting against without much success – the decriminalization of libel.
Not only did we lose the fight to decriminalize libel before the Supreme Court, Republic Act No. 10175 (The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012) even increased the penalty. For computer-related libel, the minimum punishment was raised twelve-fold, from six months to six years. The maximum punishment is doubled from six to twelve years in prison.
We recognize that the libel law has its merits – it’s a check against irresponsible reporting and abuse of the freedom of expression- but it should be downgraded into a civil offense.