RE: LIBEL | The identifiability of the victim
Libel is defined as a "public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, [real or imaginary], or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead." (Emphasis supplied)
"For an imputation to be libelous, the following requisites must concur:
a) it must be defamatory;
b) it must be malicious;
c) it must be given publicity and
d) the victim must be identifiable."
Absent any one of these elements precludes the commission of the crime of libel.
The last element — the element of identifiability of the victim — was, however, not established beyond reasonable doubt.
The rule is that "[i]n order to maintain a libel suit, it is essential that the victim be identifiable although it is not necessary that he/she be named."
The element of identifiability is easily complied with when the writing in question explicitly names the subject or the person being defamed.
In cases, however, where the person subject of the defamatory words was not named, a libel suit may only prosper "if by intrinsic reference the allusion is apparent or if the publication contains matters of description or reference to facts and circumstances from which others reading the article may know the plaintiff was intended, or if he is pointed out by extraneous circumstances so that persons knowing him could and did understand that he was the person referred to."
There are, therefore, three ways to establish the identity of the person defamed when he or she was not explicitly mentioned in the writing:
a) Identification through intrinsic reference — wherein by the words used in the writing in question, the identity of the person defamed could readily be established;
b) Identification through description — wherein the identity of the person defamed could be established by piecing together the descriptions and the facts and circumstances surrounding the character; and
c) Identification through extrinsic evidence — whereby extraneous pieces of evidence are presented to prove the link between the character and the person defamed, such as when a third person would testify that when he or she read the writing, he or she knew that it was referring to the person defamed because of his or her own knowledge of the characteristics and circumstances surrounding the person defamed and/or the latter's relationship with the writer.
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