Following years of threats and lawsuits by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the heralded journalist Maria Ressa faces up to six years in prison for cyber libel. Ressa is known as one of Time magazine’s People of the Year in 2018, as a co-founder of the online news website Rappler, and as a previous CNN investigative reporter. The verdict is widely seen as a blow to press freedoms in the Philippines and a result of Duterte’s political motivations. 

On June 15, a Manila court found both Ressa and her former Rappler colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr. guilty of cyber libel. The indictment is based on a story that was published by Rappler in 2012 that tied wealthy businessman Wilfredo Keng to then Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was impeached and removed from office shortly thereafter. “The article also alleged that Keng was involved in human trafficking and drug trafficking, among other illegal activities,” according to Forbes.

The controversy of the charge lies not only in its alleged attack on journalistic freedoms but also in its genesis. The story was written in 2012, four months before cyber libel even became a charge in the Philippines. Additionally, the case was filed in 2017, five years after the article’s publication. Rappler did concede that the story was edited to fix a misspelled word in 2014, but argued that the law still cannot be upheld retroactively. Moreover, the libel law states that a complaint must be filed within one year. After the back and forth over the validity of the charge, The Diplomat reported that “the Department of Justice argued a complaint can be filed under the 2012 cybercrime law for up to 12 years, countering Rappler’s argument that Keng’s complaint was invalid due to being outside the one-year deadline for libel.” 

This is seen as yet another attack on press freedoms following Duterte’s shutdown of ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ largest broadcast media network, which according to The New York Times is “in some of the country’s most remote regions is the only available news source.” To frame the defeat in the context of the U.S., Ressa said, “Imagine an order by a regulatory agency telling CBS or CNN to shut down, and they do? And it’s nationwide.” The pattern behind the stifling of journalistic freedoms is thought to be due to the extensive coverage of Duterte’s deadly drug war by Rappler and ABS-CBN since he was voted into office in 2016. 

In a press conference following the hearing, Ressa was unwavering in the mission of Rappler going forward, stating that the mission of Rappler would remain unchanged. “We’re at the precipice,” Ressa said. “If we fall over we’re no longer a democracy.” Various human rights groups have spoken out since the guilty verdict, with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines adding that the verdict “basically kills freedom of speech and of the press.”

Duterte’s intimidation tactics toward the media, such as stating in 2016 that “just because you’re a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination,” were just a portent of what was to come. While Ressa has the opportunity to appeal, the mark of Duterte’s intent and message for journalists has been made clear to the Philippines and other countries in this guilty verdict.