"Island of Fear"

Newsweek vs. IAC

1. Causative event
2. Sugarcane planters files libel case against Newsweek in
CFI.
• Newsweek files MTD.
• CFI denies MTD.
4. Newsweek files petition for certiorari in IAC to annul the
order of CFI denying the MTD.
• IAC affirms order of denial of CFI.
5. Newsweek files a special civil action for certiorari,
prohibition with preliminary injunction in SC.
• Statement of the issues
• On identifiability as element of libel
• On libel against a class
• On class suit
• On privileged communication
• On the remedy of special civil action to annul interlocutory
order of MTD denial
• On the failure to state a cause of action
• Newsweek wins

Causative event: 14 litigants (4 associations and 10

individuals) claim to represent 8,500. Incorporated
associations of sugarcane planters in Negros Occidental
claiming to have 8,500 members and several individual
sugar planters, filed Civil Case in their own behalf and/or as
a class suit in behalf of all sugarcane planters in the province
of Negros Occidental, against petitioner and two of petitioners'
non-resident correspondents/reporters Fred Bruning and
Barry Came. The complaint alleged that petitioner and the
other defendants committed libel against them by the
publication of the article "An Island of Fear" in the February
23, 1981 issue of petitioner's weekly news magazine
Newsweek. The article supposedly portrayed the island
province of Negros Occidental as a place dominated by big
landowners or sugarcane planters who not only exploited the
impoverished and underpaid sugarcane workers/laborers, but
also brutalized and killed them with impunity.
Class suit for libel: Complainants therein alleged that said
article, taken as a whole, showed a deliberate and malicious
use of falsehood, slanted presentation and/or
misrepresentation of facts intended to put them (sugarcane
planters) in bad light, expose them to public ridicule, discredit
and humiliation here in the Philippines and abroad, and make
them objects of hatred, contempt and hostility of their
agricultural workers and of the public in general. They prayed
that defendants be ordered to pay them PlM as actual and
compensatory damages, and such amounts for moral,
exemplary and corrective damages as the court may
determine, plus expenses of litigation, attorney's fees and
costs of suit. A photo copy of the article was attached to the
complaint.
Newsweek's MTD:
(1) lack of cause of action
(2) fails to state a cause of action
The complaint made no allegation that anything contained in
the article complained of regarding sugarcane planters
referred specifically to any one of the private respondents;
that libel can be committed only against individual reputation;
and that in cases where libel is claimed to have been directed
at a group, there is actionable defamation only if the libel can
be said to reach beyond the mere collectivity to do damage to
a specific, individual group member's reputation.
CFI's denial of MTD, as affirmed by IAC / Issues: (1)
complaint on its face states a valid cause of action, and (2)
whether the article is actionable or not is a matter of evidence.
Identifiability as element of libel: It is essential in libel that
the victim is identifiable.
Where a group or class of persons, as in the case at bar,
claim to have been defamed, for it is evident that the larger
the collectivity, the more difficult it is for the individual member
to prove that the defamatory remarks apply to him.
When libel against group possible: the statement must be
so sweeping or all-embracing as to apply to every individual in
that group or class, or sufficiently specific so that each
individual in the class or group can prove that the defamatory
statement specifically pointed to him, so that he can bring the
action separately, if need be.
On class suit: We have here a case where each of the
plaintiffs has a separate and distinct reputation in the
community. They do not have a common or general interest in
the subject matter of the controversy.
On privileged communication: The disputed portion of the
article which refers to plaintiff Sola and which was claimed to
be libelous never singled out plaintiff Sola as a sugar planter.
The news report merely stated that the victim had been
arrested by members of a special police unit brought into the
area by Pablo Sola, the mayor of Kabankalan. Hence, the
report, referring as it does to an official act performed by an
elective public official, is within the realm of privilege and
protected by the constitutional guarantees of free speech
and press.
On failure to state cause of action: The specific
allegation in the complaint, to the effect that the article
attributed to the sugarcane planters the deaths and
brutalization of sugarcane workers, is not borne out by a
perusal of the actual text.
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