veteran journalist in the philippines who was critical of the country s strong man due dar tay is fru on bail one day after being arrested on cyber libel charges. they say the charges stem from an article she wrote in 2012. the libel law which is controversial came into effect in september, 2012, four months after the article was published. president freedom advocates say the charges against him are an attempt by the philippine government silence journalists. long resigned yesterday. he s been under fire for using government resources and a inspector general report found he continued to use it after he was told to stop. a response long later acknowledged was flawed, it s not clear when he plans to
don t know why washington politicians don t change libel laws. let s have a first year law class. libel is a tort. libel is state law. there are 50 different libel laws and they re all very similar in the country but congress does not address libel law. that s not within congress power. supreme court establishes a certain baseline about what the first amendment allows in libel cases. president obama was not born in the united states, would that be libel? very interesting question because it damages your reputation. now there is nothing damaging. lots of people are not born in the united states. how about saying somebody s father was involved in the kennedy assassination, would that be libelous? to the father, yes. how about
are libel laws on the agenda for the average american? why is he talking about this? well, it s going to be a very strong look at liable laws, as he said. you know, i m at the white house quite a bit. it doesn t sound like there are any actual policies right now in the works at the white house to go after liable laws, to strengthen liable laws, expand them, weaken them, whatever president trump has in mind. libel law is in the state purview. i would be shocked to see the white house come up with a policy any time soon to change that. what we have here is is a threat from president trump. as we ve been talking about, the meetings yesterday, the meetings today, these are not necessarily aimed at getting an immigration deal done this week. the broader point here is a response to the fire and fury book. that s what he s talking about here.
that. we want farirness. you can t say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank think. we re going to bank account. we re going to take a very strong look at that. and i think what the american people want to see is fairness. so what is the president s motivation here? are libel laws on the agenda for the average american? why is he talking about this? well, it s going to be a strong look at libel laws, as he said. you know, i m at the white house quite a bit. it doesn t sound like there are any actual policies right now in the works at the white house to go after libel laws, expands them, weaken them, whatever president trump has in n mimind. libel law is in the state purview. i would be shocked to see the white house come up with a policy any time soon to change
laws and how he wants to beef them up? listen to this. our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent american values or american fairness. so is we re going to take a strong look at that. we want fairness. you can t say things that are false, knowingly false. john avlon, real? that happens to be the current standard of libel law. you can t say something knowingly false. they are values not only in the first amendment but enshrined. is he instructing his attorney general to look at libel laws. yes. so it s both disturbing is and bluster. okay. we have to leave it there. you did both. that was a two-fer. thank you very much. quick assignment, google 1798 laws.