‘TRAVESTY’ | US senators hit cyberlibel conviction on Ressa

June 16, 2020 , 06:56 PM

(June 16, 2020) – Three US senators have condemned the conviction of an award-winning journalist and a researcher on cyber libel charges, describing it as a “travesty of justice” as well as a “selective application” of the law.

Maria Angelita Ressa, 56, editor of online news platform Rappler, a critic Rodrigo Duterte, was sentenced to serve up to six years in jail along with a former researcher for a story that linked businessman Wilfredo Keng to drug and human trafficking ties.

Democratic senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Patrick Leahly of Vermont, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, who are strong human rights defender, in a joint statement said Ressa had shown courage to continue work despite tirades and threats from the president himself.

“Maria Ressa and her colleagues have spoken truth to power through their vital work, and she has shown great courage as the government threatens Rappler, ABS-CBN, and other media organizations,” the lawmakers said.

They said such was a sign that the Philippines, “one of the oldest democracies in Asia, a United States ally, is abandoning its commitment to fundamental freedoms including freedom of the press.”

Rappler’s story on Keng was published in 2012, months before the Philippine cybercrime law was enacted. The news site has admitted to making typographical error on the story two years later when the cyberlibel was already in effect.

A local court in Manila ruled the correction w as a republication, and it merit an offense.

Ressa has argued that Keng’s camp had only reached out to them in 2017, five years since the story was published and after Duterte had threatened Rappler in his State of the Nation Address.

The American senators said the retroactive application of the law sets “dangerous precedents.”

“It is shocking to see the Philippine government strain to extend its legal reach to target journalists while so many extrajudicial abuses cry out for investigation and prosecution,” they said.

At a regular press briefing on Tuesday, Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. can seek instead for probation to avoid jail time.

“Ibig sabihin, walang kulong kung tatanggapin ang desisyon at mag-a-apply ng probation. Pero kung siya ay aapela, mawawala ang pribelihiyo na wala ng kulong at kapag siya ay nag-apela at natalo pa siya, kulong talaga siya,” he said.

It is not the first time that the three had spoken out on issues in the Philippines.

Last year, they introduced a resolution in the US’ upper chamber of Congress to condemn the Philippine government over threats against Ressa, as well as the continuing detention of Senator Leila de Lima for more than three years now.

Duterte had since responded by banning Durbin and Leahly from entering the country, in retaliation to their move. (Christian de Lano Deiparine/MM)

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