Bear False Witness: Thou Shalt Not

Just a few weeks ago, an undergraduate student approached me and succinctly asked, “What do I need to remember every time I write my blog entries so I wouldn’t be sued for libel?”

A rather unusual thing to be asked nowadays, don’t you think?

In this day and age of modern technology being indiscreetly used by many, it is unusual to find people who are careful enough to avoid legal liability and who care enough not to hurt other people.

Blogs, in the last half-decade, have been a way of life for many. Proof is the word’s inclusion in the dictionaries. It ceased to become a fad at some point, and has become a presumed “property” of teens, yuppies, and social-intellectual adults. Gone are the days when we would all want to become the child prodigy Doogie, who ends his days encoding his journal entries.[1] (Doogie isn’t even connected to the net then, and yet, we adored him.)

And the downside: everyone writes about practically everything under the sun.
The upshot: everyone could read practically everything under the sun. And by “everything”, we use the ordinary sense of the word.

I am reminded of a friend who ranted in her blog about her professor, only to be approached by the same professor months later to let her know that he read her blog. And I’m not one to forget a “dispute among the gods” in the recent past (read: semester) while mere mortals had blow-by-blow accounts from every blog entry and comment posted from either camp.[2] And how about this case before a Milan court, where a 32-year-old Italian “documented”, without consent, the pornographic pictures of his girlfriend online?[3] Forget not the legendaries –- Brian Gorrell and Perez Hilton. No further explanation needed.

Many (okay, count me in) fail to remember that there are some responsibilities that go with the many benefits and conveniences of blogging. All writers, which include all those who blog, should be mindful of the concept of defamation (or cyberdefamation[4]).

And being asked by a conscientious undergrad was like my alarm clock ringing, cutting my 12-hour sleep. It's about time to wake up. One may not be that fortunate all the time to encounter a Charles Barkley who would brush aside defamatory remarks, thus, sparing one from liability.[5]

And so I answer the cautious undergrad, paraphrasing Daez vs. CA[6], make sure not to impute a discreditable act or condition to another, and publish such imputation, which maliciously defames another person’s identity. And as an added caution, malice is presumed in every defamatory imputation. The truth of the imputation is not a defense, except when done good motives and for justifiable ends, such as when there is a duty to conceal a crime.

Okay, let that be a note to self, too.


(for the week 27 July to 02 August 2008)
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[1] Just an aside: Doogie’s first encoded journal entry: “Kissed my first girl… Life will never be the same again.”
[2] He who claims to not know, lies.
[3] http://thetechstop.net/?p=1015
[4] Or the commission of defamation online. Under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, libel (or defamation) is defined as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status or circumstance tending to discredit or cause the dishonor or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.
[5] Barkley once said, “My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character.”
[6] G.R. No. 47971, 31 October 1990