MANILA, Philippines -- Journalists may no longer be hauled off to jail when they are convicted by the courts of libel, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno said Thursday.

The country's highest magistrate stressed, however, this should in no way be construed to mean that libel is no longer a crime.

In a chat with reporters on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) on Thursday, Puno said he is set to release a new circular urging judges to forego imprisonment as a punishment for journalists convicted of libel.

"I will come out with a new circular within a day or two,” he said. “This will advise the judges that when the penalty imposed is imprisonment and/or a fine, then the judges should, in the exercise of their discretion, impose a fine and not imprisonment.”
The Revised Penal Code of the Philippines defines libel as a “malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.”

For an imputation to be libelous, the statement made, published or broadcast must be defamatory, malicious, must have been given publicity, and must have made the victim identifiable to the public.

According to Puno, the new circular -- which could be released as early as Friday -- “would be very valuable” to members of the media.

"If you review the cases on libel, you'll find out that a lot of times, the act is committed with honest intentions,” he said. “Therefore, a member of the media [who] commits this kind of an act, to our mind, need not be penalized by imprisonment.”

Instead, the payment of the fine “will already satisfy the intent of the law to punish the culprit,” the Chief Justice said. “There is an option given by the law.”

Puno described the new policy as an “interim measure” meant to aid the media while the proposal to “decriminalize” libel is still being debated by lawmakers.

"So when there is a conviction, the penalty should no longer be imprisonment but just the payment of a fine,” he said, quickly adding, however, that this relaxation will have to be ultimately determined by the judge handling the case.

"Of course, [this would be made] in the exercise of discretion of the judge, as dictated by the circumstances,” he said. “These are elastic circumstances and it would depend on how the offense was committed, especially the intent of the accused, whether or not the act was done with malice.”

He pointed out that libel remains a crime despite the Supreme Court's new circular and that that the task of decriminalizing libel rests with Congress.

"In fact, there are fears on decriminalizing libel,” Puno noted.