Int'l media group slams arrest of Newsbreak editor

A New York-based media group decried on Thursday (Manila time) the arrest of Newsbreak magazine online editor Gemma Bagayaua-Mendoza for a libel suit filed by Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) pushed for the immediate dropping of the P100-million libel case, which it likened to a "battering ram against press freedom." "The authorities in the Philippines are using criminal libel as a battering ram against press freedom ... Government officials should not rush to a prosecutor every time a journalist writes critically about those in power. The charges against the Newsbreak editors should be dropped," CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in a statement posted on the CPJ website (www.cpj.org). Simon noted that Bagayaua wrote a lengthy article On February 12, Newsbreak ran a lengthy article analyzing the changes in political factions surrounding President Arroyo. It identified Singson as one of five people who helped Arroyo survive the political fallout from an alleged election rigging scandal in July 2005. "President Arroyo's husband, Miguel Arroyo, has filed similar suits against 46 journalists. In response to politicians' use of criminal libel suits, a coalition of more than 600 journalists and 30 local and foreign international media freedom organizations issued a joint petition calling for the decriminalization of libel," Simon noted. Bagayaua, online editor of Newsbreak magazine, spent Wednesday night in jail because her lawyer failed to post bail of P 10,000 at a night court in Quezon City that closed early on Wednesday. She was arrested by Pasig City policemen on Wednesday afternoon over a P100-million libel suit filed by Singson, an administration senatorial candidate. Maritess Danguilan Vitug, Newsbreak's editor in chief, said she and Bagayaua's lawyer went to a Quezon City court on Wednesday afternoon but failed to post bail because the court's cashier left early at 4 p.m. and the night court also closed early at 6 p.m. Lawyer Neri Javier Colmenares of the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties told GMANews.TV that while Supreme Court rules provide for night courts, these are "most of the time ineffective and non-functional". "Normally, it's not that easy being released on bail, especially when a person was arrested in the afternoon. Most of the time, night inquest fiscals are not available," he said. Colmenares said the processing of bail bond "is cumbersome." "Usually, it takes a day, before a person is released on bail. After processing papers, he or she has to wait for the fiscal's resolution on whether he or she would file a case against the person arrested," he said. He said to speed up the release of an arrested person, some of them get the services of bonding or surety companies that charge 25 percent of the bail bond. Dominador Arquilada of the Vigan Regional Trial Court Branch 21 issued a warrant of arrest against Bagayaua, Danguilan and Newsbreak's publisher Maan Hontiveros, business editor Lala Rimando and senior writer Aries Rufo. Earlier, Bagayaua's P 10,000 bail was not accepted by the clerk of court in Pasig City because the head of the police warrant department was not in his office to sign the papers for bail posting. Bagayaua told GMANews.TV that she was the only one of the five to be arrested who was inside the Newsbreak office at the Tektite Towers along Exchange road in Pasig city when two policemen in plain clothes arrived at 2:45 p.m. Meanwhile, officers and members of media groups led by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, National Press Club (NPC), Alyansa ng Filipinong Mamamahayag and the Association of Responsible Media gathered Wednesday night in front of the Pasig police headquarters and lighted candles to demand for the early release of Bagayaua. NUJP Chairman Jose Torres Jr, said journalists wanted to show to the government that the media in the Philippines "will never be intimidated by threats and intimidation against press freedom." Torres said Bagayaua's arrest violated an agreement between the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police which required the police to coordinate first with the NPC before they arrest journalists. He said the agreement was made in 2001, when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the presidency. -GMANews.TV