Filipino journalist Maria Ressa was sentenced on Monday for cyber defamation and sentenced to prison in a case that, according to watchdogs, marks a dangerous erosion of press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte.
Ressa, 56, and her Rappler news site have been the target of a series of cases and polls after publishing articles criticizing Duterte’s policies, including his war on drugs that killed thousands of people .
The former CNN award-winning journalist faces up to six years behind bars in the culmination of a case that has attracted international attention.
It was not immediately clear how many years she would have to serve if the sentence became final, and judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa allowed Ressa to remain on bail pending an appeal.
“We will oppose any type of attack on press freedom,” Ressa told journalists after being sentenced to Manila.
“It is a big blow for us. But it is not unexpected either,” she added. “We are supposed to be a cautionary tale. We are supposed to scare you. But don’t be afraid. Because if you don’t use your rights, you’ll lose them.”
Monday’s verdict decided on a trial that arose out of a 2017 businessman’s complaint about a Rappler story five years earlier about his alleged ties to a judge at the time in the highest court from the country.
Ressa, whom Time magazine named Person of the Year in 2018, did not write the article and government investigators initially rejected the businessman’s allegation.
But state prosecutors later laid charges against her and former journalist Rappler Reynaldo Santos, who wrote it, under a controversial cybercrime law targeting online crimes such as harassment. and child pornography.
Santos was also found guilty on Monday and allowed to remain on bail.
“Fake news outlet”
Duterte’s government has said the case is not politically motivated and that the authorities must apply the law, even against journalists.
But rights groups and media advocates argue that the defamation charge and a series of tax cases against Rappler and a government decision to strip the news site of its license amount to harassment of State.
“Ressa … and the Rappler team have been recognized for their critical reporting on the Duterte administration,” said Amnesty International.
“With this latest attack on independent media, the Philippines’ human rights record continues to plummet.”
Human Rights Watch said the case “will have repercussions not only in the Philippines, but in many countries that have long viewed the country as a solid environment for media freedom.”
Ressa’s verdict comes just over a month after government regulators suspended air ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcaster, after years of threats from Duterte to shut down the network.
Rappler and ABS-CBN have both reported in detail on Duterte’s anti-drug campaign in which police shot dead dealers and suspected users in operations condemned by rights groups.
Some of the most prominent critics of the crackdown have found themselves behind bars, including Senator Leila de Lima, who is serving three years in prison on drug charges which she claims were fabricated to silence her.
In 2018, Duterte denounced Rappler as “false media” and subsequently banned Ressa and his colleagues from his public commitments.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
