Responding to news that a Manila court convicted Rappler editor-in-chief Maria Ressa and former journalist Reynaldo Santos Jr of \u201ccyber libel\u201d over an article written in 2012, Amnesty International\u2019s Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Nicholas Bequelin, said:<\/p>\n\n\n
Ressa and her team have become global icons for press freedom after President Duterte himself has repeatedly singled them out for attack. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\u201cThis verdict is a sham and should be quashed. Ressa, Santos and the Rappler team are being singled out for their critical reporting of the Duterte administration, including ongoing human rights violations in the Philippines. The accusations against them are political, the prosecution was politically-motivated, and the sentence is nothing but political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith this latest assault on independent media, the human rights record of the Philippines continues its free fall. It is time for the UN to urgently open an international investigation into the country\u2019s human rights crisis, in line with the recent conclusions of the UN Human Rights office itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRessa and her team have become global icons for press freedom after President Duterte himself has repeatedly singled them out for attack, intimidation and harassment. They face a long battle ahead, with several more politically motivated charges awaiting trial.<\/p>\n\n\n
It is time for the UN to urgently open an international investigation into the country\u2019s human rights crisis, in line with the recent conclusions of the UN Human Rights office itself. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\u201cThis guilty verdict follows the shutdown of ABS-CBN, which remains off the air \u2013 also after coming under the President\u2019s attacks. The international community cannot remain silent in the face of this brazen vendetta against the press.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 15 June 2020, a Manila court convicted both Ressa and Santos of cyber libel, becoming the first journalists in the Philippines convicted of the offence. The verdict carries a penalty of imprisonment ranging from six months and one day to six years. It orders Ressa and Santos to pay the complainant, businessman William Keng, a total of PhP 400,000 (USD 7,950) in damages. The court allowed the two to post bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case against the two stems from an investigative article by Santos, published on 29 May 2012. The article alleged that former Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona used a vehicle owned by Keng, who had suspected links to illegal drugs and human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven years later, on 13 February 2019, Ressa was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation and detained overnight before being granted provisional release on bail, after the Department of Justice accused Ressa and Santos of \u201ccyber libel\u201d for the article. The article was published more than three months before the Cyber Libel Act was passed into law. The law should never have been applied retroactively, as the alleged offence was not a crime at the time it took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ressa, Santos and Rappler\u2019s directors collectively face several other lawsuits and investigations, including alleged tax violations and violations of the prohibition against foreign control over mass media. Rappler has been a consistent critic of President Duterte and his administration, publishing detailed investigations into some of the thousands of extrajudicial executions of poor and marginalized people committed by police and other unknown armed persons during \u2018war on drugs\u2019 operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 5 May 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease-and-desist against broadcast media company ABS-CBN<\/a>, ordering the company to stop operating its TV and radio broadcasting stations nationwide \u201cdue to the expiration of its congressional franchise\u201d. ABS-CBN has produced numerous investigative reports highlighting human rights violations and attracted the ire of President Duterte for allegedly failing to run his paid political advertisements, during the 2016 elections that he won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 4, a UN Human Rights Office report<\/a> drew attention to \u201cserious human rights violations\u201d in the country. The report, among other things, \u201cdetailed ongoing threats to freedom of expression, with legal charges and prosecutions being brought against journalists and senior politicians critical of the Government, as well as actions to shut down media outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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