06 December 2005
SC clears editor-publisher of ad-based libel complaint
CHAMPIONING freedom of speech, expression, and of the press, the Supreme Court acquitted the editor-publisher of the Sunday Post, a weekly publication circulated in the Visayas and Mindanao, of libel chargeas.
The Court said it was “clear that there was nothing untruthful” in the one-page paid advertisement in the October 13, 1991 issue of the Sunday Post enumerating the records of criminal cases and photographs of a Cebu-based broadcaster being arrested.
The Court’s Second Division, through Justice Dante O. Tinga, reversed and set aside the portion of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court’s May 17, 1994 decision convicting Sunday Post editor-publisher Ciriaco “Boy” Guingguing of libel.
The Court also reversed and set aside the July 29,1996 decision and October 3, 1996 resolution of the Court of Appeals upholding the RTC ruling.
Since only Guingguing filed the petition, the verdict against his co-accused Segundo Lim, who paid for the subject one-page ad, had become final and executory.
“The publication of the subject advertisement by petitioner and Lim cannot be deemed by this Court to have been done with actual malice. Aside from the fact that the information contained in said publication was true, the intention to let the public know the character of their radio commentator can at best be subsumed under the mantle of having been done with good motives and for justifiable ends.
The advertisement in question falls squarely within the bounds of constitutionally protected expression under Sec. 4, Art. III, and thus, acquittal is mandated,” the Court said. (Guingguing v. CA and People, GR No. 128959, September 30, 2005)
The Court said it was “clear that there was nothing untruthful” in the one-page paid advertisement in the October 13, 1991 issue of the Sunday Post enumerating the records of criminal cases and photographs of a Cebu-based broadcaster being arrested.
The Court’s Second Division, through Justice Dante O. Tinga, reversed and set aside the portion of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court’s May 17, 1994 decision convicting Sunday Post editor-publisher Ciriaco “Boy” Guingguing of libel.
The Court also reversed and set aside the July 29,1996 decision and October 3, 1996 resolution of the Court of Appeals upholding the RTC ruling.
Since only Guingguing filed the petition, the verdict against his co-accused Segundo Lim, who paid for the subject one-page ad, had become final and executory.
“The publication of the subject advertisement by petitioner and Lim cannot be deemed by this Court to have been done with actual malice. Aside from the fact that the information contained in said publication was true, the intention to let the public know the character of their radio commentator can at best be subsumed under the mantle of having been done with good motives and for justifiable ends.
The advertisement in question falls squarely within the bounds of constitutionally protected expression under Sec. 4, Art. III, and thus, acquittal is mandated,” the Court said. (Guingguing v. CA and People, GR No. 128959, September 30, 2005)
