Statement on the First Gentleman?s plan to drop the libel suits versus journalists, including two he filed against Newsbreak:
We?re glad that Mr. Jose Miguel ?Mike? Arroyo has seen the light. He should never have filed these libel cases in the first place.
New York ?Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has withdrawn 46 criminal libel suits he had filed against 11 journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed today?s news but said the suits should never have been brought.
Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the news that Mike Arroyo, the husband of President Gloria Arroyo, has decided to drop all law suits against the country’s journalists and publishers.
The worldwide press freedom organisation hailed the exemplary campaign waged by Philippines’ journalist organisations and called for press offences to be decriminalised.
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Although another tumultuous year has passed in South Asia, overshadowed by political instability, poverty and state repression, journalists and media workers throughout the region have continued their battle for a free press.
?It is clearer than ever that it takes extraordinary courage, dedication and commitment for journalists to tell the essential stories of our communities in the region,? said Jacqueline Park, director, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific.
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“We are at war? against those who seek to mangle news into a tool for propaganda and disinformation, against the merchants of falsehoods and fallacies out to entice and corrupt media by the glitter of gold and the power of the dime.”