Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who heads the news site Rappler, has been found guilty of cyberlibel in the country’s first conviction of its kind involving the media, in a decision seen as a blow to press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
A Manila court yesterday convicted Ressa, who was accused by a businessman of cyberlibel for publishing an allegedly defamatory article in 2012 about his alleged ties to a then-judge on the nation’s top court.
The award-winning former CNN journalist and codefendant Reynaldo Santos, a former Rappler journalist, were sentenced to up to six years in jail.
Photo: Reuters
Ressa did not write the article and government investigators initially dismissed the businessman’s allegation, but state prosecutors later filed charges against her and Santos, who wrote it, under a controversial cybercrime statute aimed at online offenses such as stalking and child pornography.
Even though the original report came out months before the law was enacted, the court ruled that it was republished in 2014, supposedly to correct a misspelling.
The court ruled that the crime of online libel lapses in 12 years and is “more serious” compared with ordinary libel, which takes a year to lapse.
“The right of free speech and freedom of the press cannot and should not be used as a shield against accountability,” the court said in its ruling, adding that free speech has to be balanced with the right against defamation.
It was not immediately clear how long Ressa would actually have to serve if the conviction becomes final, and Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa allowed Ressa and Santos to remain free on bail pending an appeal.
“We are going to stand up against any kind of attacks against press freedom,” a defiant Ressa told journalists after the conviction was handed down.
“I began as a reporter in 1986 and I have worked in so many countries around the world, I have been shot at and threatened, but never this kind of death by a thousand cuts,” she said.
“This is a blow to us, but it is also not unexpected,” Ressa, who is also facing seven other criminal charges, including for alleged tax evasion and media foreign ownership violation, said later at a televised briefing. “We are going to stand up against any kind of attack against press freedom.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte upholds free speech and has no hand in the court ruling, his spokesman Harry Roque said.
“The president isn’t behind the supposed repression of freedom of expression and of the press,” Roque said.
Ressa’s online libel case “sets a dangerous precedent” and “is seen deleterious to press freedom,” said Danilo Arao, a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS