Tribune boss taunts DOJ: Bury us with more raps

Daily Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho-Olivares on Thursday taunted the Department of Justice, daring officials to file more sedition charges against her so that she and her staff would stop criticizing the Arroyo administration. “The only thing they can do to shut me up is to keep on filing case after case after case," she told GMA News in a television interview. Olivares branded as harassment the DOJ’s filing of inciting to sedition charges against her and two other columnist of the newspaper. She also questioned the timing of the filing of charges as it came at the start of the senatorial campaign for the midterm May 14 elections. She said government officials thought that she would stop criticizing the administration once she was charged in court. In a separate interview, Olivares said Tribune would not stop exposing the anomalies in the government even with numerous cases filed against them. Senior State Prosecutor Philip Kimpo on Wednesday said he saw probable cause to file inciting to sedition charges against Olivares and columnists Ramon "Ike" Señeres and Herman Tiu-Laurel before the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court. DOJ alleged that the articles written by the three journalists tend to "lead or stir up the people against the lawful authorities, namely, the President of the Philippines and disturb the peace of the community." It said that for writing these articles, the three journalists violated Article 12 of the Revised Penal Code. "Aptly, it must be clearly understood and always borne in mind that there is a vast difference between criticism or fair comment on the one side and defamation on the other. Where defamation commences, true criticism ends," Kimpo said. He also said "the accused [have] continuously maligned and undermined the present administration" and government institutions and have even "sullied the reputation and integrity of the institution(s) and compromised the moral ascendancy of its members."- GMANews.TV