Someone defamed me on radio — is that libel or only slander?

Why a broadcast is libel even though nothing was written

The everyday assumption is that written insults are libel and spoken ones are slander. The Code does not draw the line that way. Article 355 covers a libel committed by means of writing, printing, lithography, engraving, radio, phonograph, painting, theatrical exhibition, cinematographic exhibition, or any similar means. Radio sits in that list beside printing, and the article closes with any similar means, which is why a recording, a film or a broadcast on television is dealt with the same way. What matters to the law is not whether the words were typed but whether they were fixed and pushed out to an audience. Oral defamation under Article 358 is for the insult flung in a shop or a barangay hall, heard by whoever happened to be standing there.

You still have to prove the elements of defamation

Calling it libel decides the form of the offence, not your case. You must still show the four things every defamation complaint needs: an imputation of a crime, a vice, a defect or any act tending to dishonour or discredit you; publicity, which a broadcast plainly supplies; malice; and that you are identifiable, even if you were never named, so long as listeners could tell who was meant. Article 353 gives the definition and Article 354 supplies the presumption of malice together with the privileged situations that defeat it — a fair and true report of an official proceeding, for instance, or a private communication made in the performance of a legal or moral duty.

The penalty, and the amounts that actually apply

Article 355 as it stands today is punished by prisión correccional in its minimum and medium periods or a fine, or both. The fine range printed on our page — Forty thousand pesos to One million two hundred thousand pesos — is the figure set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the fines and property values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Many books, websites and older reproductions still carry the 1930 amounts, which are dramatically lower, so check which version any source you rely on is giving you. The article also preserves the civil action which may be brought by the offended party: the criminal case and your claim for damages are separate things, and you can pursue compensation for the harm to your name.

If it also went out online, another law applies

Stations rarely stop at the airwaves. If the same segment was streamed, uploaded to a page, or clipped and posted, the cybercrime law of 2012 comes into play as well: defamation committed through a computer system is punished under that statute, and it carries a heavier penalty than the same words broadcast on radio alone. That is worth knowing before you decide what to complain about. Practical steps first, though — a broadcast disappears unless someone keeps it. Note the station, the programme, the date and the time, secure a recording or the station's own log while it still exists, and identify listeners who can say what they heard. Rules on where a libel case may be filed and how quickly are strict, so take advice early rather than after the trail has gone cold.

Related provisions

• Revised Penal Code, Article 355 — Libel By Writing Or Similar Means
• Revised Penal Code, Article 353 — Definition Of Libel
• Revised Penal Code, Article 354 — Requirement For Publicity
• Revised Penal Code, Article 358 — Slander