Libel and the hypocrisy of our position

Its like this. In our jurisdiction, there are crimes considered inherently bad and those considered as prohibited acts. Those inherently bad are called mala in se and prohibited acts are called mala prohibita.

Libel is considered an actionable crime because of its effects in the reputation of an individual. Based on experience, people suffer from insults and innumerable things when people talk about them in an unflattering light. Hence, those who accuse other people with false charges, are liable for libel.

Consider this---when a person is charged with libel, he stands to lose his liberty. In our jurisdiction, someone charged with online libel is expected to get a maximum penalty of imprisonment of twelve years.

There are more grievous crimes included in our Penal Code yet these crimes do not prescribe an imprisonment such as this. Consider crimes as detestable as that of graft and corruption or infidelity in the custody of public documents and one will find that their punishments are shorter and more lenient than libel. Are we saying that falsely accusing someone of a crime is worse than, say, stealing people's monies?

How about human trafficking? Punishment in violating the anti-human trafficking laws is far "weaker" than the punishment to be mete to a libel suspect. Are we saying that it is far worse to malign someone than to make someone a slave?

We always claim to be a democratic and freedom-loving nation, but why do we penalize those who just want to express themselves? Apologists say, those being punished are those irresponsible enough to accuse someone of commiting a crime without any evidence. Yet, the provisions of the Cybercrime Law says the use of words is punishable already.

I subscribe to the idea of punishing those who falsely accuse someone of committng a crime. However, is it decent and proper to punish someone by depriving him of his liberty? No. Congress should have realized that reputational attacks costs instead of deprive someone of his own liberty. Hence, libel should be punished by meting someone with civil damages rather than imprisonment.