Iloilo case an example of privacy, media clash

ILOILO CITY—An Iloilo judge has imposed a P200 fine on a law student for assaulting a TV reporter in a case that can serve as an example of how privacy often clashes with how journalists practice their profession.

Judge Rene Gonzales, of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 7, imposed the fine on Andrea Gorriceta and ordered Gorriceta to pay P5,000 in lawyers’ fees.

Judge Gonzales found Gorriceta guilty of slight physical injuries when she assaulted Charlene Belvis, reporter of TV network GMA in Iloilo, on Dec. 22, 2008.

The judge, however, dismissed two other cases against Gorriceta for oral defamation and slander for lack of evidence. Gonzales also threw out monetary claims made by Belvis against Gorriceta.

Belvis sued Gorriceta after Gorriceta slapped the reporter, pulled her hair and dragged her inside the Jaro District police station here.

The assault was caught on video which was used as evidence against Gorriceta.

The TV crew had followed Gorriceta to the police station to fill holes in a story about Gorriceta allegedly slamming her car into another vehicle in Small Ville, an entertainment complex here, and fleeing.

The search for answers by the TV crew took them to Jalandoni Street where Gorriceta’s car was spotted and where Belvis and her crew started interviewing Gorriceta and taking footage of her and her car which irked Gorriceta.

Belvis, in charging Gorriceta with assault, said she was just doing her job as a  journalist when they took video footage of the law student on Jalandoni Street and inside the police station.

Gorriceta told the court she got angry and lost her patience because Belvis and her crew ignored her repeated pleas to be left alone. She accused the reporter of violating her right to privacy.

Judge Gonzales took note of this detail in the case—that Gorriceta had pleaded for privacy which was ignored.

The judge chided Belvis for continuing to interview Gorriceta and taking footage of her despite Gorriceta’s repeated appeal for privacy.

Gonzales said the fight between Belvis and Gorriceta started “at the instant of the complainant (Belvis) who rabidly insisted coverage of an incident over the objection and plea of the accused (Gorriceta).”

There was “unjustified intrusion” into Gorriceta’s privacy, said the judge.

So when Gorriceta freaked out and attacked Belvis, the judge said, no malice was present and the assault was “a vindication of her (Gorriceta’s) right which she believed was wantonly violated.”

The judge also chided Belvis for her coverage of the trial of the case involving her and Gorriceta which “was calculated … to generate sympathy to (sic) the complainant (Belvis).”

Gonzales, however, said Gorriceta could not claim temporary insanity or rage to justify her attack on Belvis and evade criminal liability.