Int'l media group deplores radioman’s continued detention

MANILA, Philippines - An international media watchdog deplored Thursday (Manila time) the continued detention of radio broadcaster Alexander Adonis in Davao, even after posting bail. Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres/RSF) called on the Davao trial regional court to release Adonis soonest, saying his continued detention is an insult to the rule of law. "Adonis must be released because imprisonment for defamation is a violation of freedom of expression and an attempt to intimidate journalists. His continued detention after the court ruling is an insult to the rule of law in the Philippines. The Supreme Court must order his release and defamation must be decriminalized," it said in a statement on its website. It noted that prison officials refused to free Adonis of dxMF Bombo Radyo, ignoring a Davao City regional trial court’s release order. He had been sentenced last year to serve four and a half years jail term for "slandering" now House Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. Adonis' colleagues, who helped him post the bail, went to Davao prison last May 26, hours after Davao regional court Judge George Omelio ordered him released on bail of P5,000. But prison warden Benjo Tesoro told them Adonis would not be freed until "higher correctional authorities" had been officially informed. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called on justice secretary Raúl Gonzalez and national prisons chief Oscar Calderon to "rectify the error" that had "deprived Adonis of his constitutional rights." Last month, Adonis, the NUJP and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) lodged a complaint with the UN High Commission on Human Rights condemning the "criminal" nature of the country's defamation law. Lawyer Harry Roque Jr. also asked for Adonis' trial to be reviewed by the Davao regional court in the light of a Supreme Court memorandum last Jan. 25, recommending that judges fine rather than imprison people for defamation. - GMANews.TV