(CMFR/IFEX) – On 10 December 2004, a local judge issued a temporary restraining order on lawyer-journalist Melanio “Batas” Mauricio Jr., barring him from disclosing in public any controversial information about a meat processing company. Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court Judge Dionisio Sison has issued an order stopping Mauricio “from publishing, televising, and/or broadcasting any subject […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – On 10 December 2004, a local judge issued a temporary restraining order on lawyer-journalist Melanio “Batas” Mauricio Jr., barring him from disclosing in public any controversial information about a meat processing company.
Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court Judge Dionisio Sison has issued an order stopping Mauricio “from publishing, televising, and/or broadcasting any subject matter” regarding alleged live worms found in a canned product of CDO Foodsphere Inc.
It was the third civil action staged by Foodsphere against Mauricio, a columnist and TV public service host. The first two were libel suits worth P40 million (approx. US$711,430), filed by the company for the broadcaster’s alleged “demolition” job and “malicious and defamatory write-ups” against the company.
In return, Mauricio filed a motion for reconsideration and a motion to squash with the chamber of Judge Sison on 13 December.
“At the outset, [the] defendants strongly condemn the improvident and erroneous issuance by this court of the temporary restraining order for [the] gross violation of the defendant’s Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression, amounting to gross ignorance of the law,” Mauricio said in his six-page appeal.
