Media watchdogs are appealing to the Supreme Court of the Philippines to drop a long-standing cyber libel case against Nobel Peace laureate and journalist Maria Ressa.
Ressa, who founded the news website Rappler, and one of her colleagues, Reynaldo Santos Jr., are appealing a conviction for cyber libel. Charges were first filed in the case in 2017 and relate to an investigative story first published in 2012.
“If Ressa's conviction is not set aside, she could be jailed for up to seven years, and that remains unthinkable," Julie Posetti, of the International Center for Journalists, or ICFJ, told VOA via email.
The ICFJ, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, collaborated on an amicus brief filed earlier in June.
In it, the media watchdogs argue that the case breaches the international obligations of the Philippines. They also say the case betrays the press freedom legacy the court has reaffirmed for more than a century.
The brief adds that both the case against Ressa and Santos Jr. and the country’s criminal defamation laws go against legal best practice and international law.
That in turn affects the ability of media to act as a public watchdog, the brief says.
“The prospect of facing criminal liability for allegedly misreporting facts — or worse yet, being punished for accurate reporting — will have a profound chilling effect, discouraging journalists from wading into the sensitive topics that often are the subjects of greatest public concern,” the brief states.
The cyber libel conviction is one of nearly two dozen legal cases filed against Ressa and Rappler in what media analysts say is retaliatory action by the government.
At one point, the award-winning journalist was facing a combined prison sentence of more than 100 years.
The Philippine government has previously denied the cases are in retaliation for Rappler’s investigative journalism.
Several of the cases have since been dismissed or seen Ressa acquitted. But the journalist still faces a prison term in the libel case.
"The conviction of Maria Ressa and her former Rappler colleague on a criminal cyber libel charge about a 12-year-old piece of investigative reporting must be urgently overturned in the interests of justice,” Posetti told VOA.
"We urge the court to carefully consider the expert legal opinions submitted in the case, which is in its final stage of appeal."
Press freedom organizations say that the case risks undermining the public’s right to access information and takes away freedom of expression.
The Supreme Court has already accepted amicus briefs in Ressa’s case from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute.