CRIMES AGAINST HONOR

Category: Book 2- Crimes and Penalties

CRIMES AGAINST HONOR

1. A person’s name, honor and reputation, is as sacred to him as his very life. Title 13 seeks to give protection thereto by defining certain acts injurious to a person’s name and reputation as crimes and prescribing penalties therefore.  

2. These crimes, which are in the nature of character assassination, are classified according to the manner of their commission into the following:

     a). Libel  which is by making use of the mass media and literary forms or literary outlets

     b). Oral Defamation which is by the use of oral utterances

     c). Slander by Deed which is by performing an act intended to cast dishonor, disrespect or contempt upon a person   .

     d). Incriminatory machinations which may either be:
        (i) Incriminating an innocent person in the commission of a crime by planting evidence
        (ii) Intriguing against honor by resorting to any scheme, plot, design, but not by direct spoken words, to destroy the reputation of another

3. Elements common to crimes against honor

a) That there be a matter, oral written or in whatever form, or of an act, which is defamatory to another

b).That there is publicity of the defamatory matter

c). That there be malice on the part of the accused

d). That the person defamed is identifiable

4. The foregoing crimes cannot be committed by negligence because all require the element of malice.

5. Title 13, especially the article on libel constitutes another limitation to the freedom of speech and of the press as these two freedoms can not be allowed to be used to destroy the good name of an innocent person.