Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC condemn conviction of Maria Ressa in Manila cyberlibel judgment.
Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC have, on behalf of the international legal team acting for award-winning journalist Maria Ressa, expressed condemnation following today’s judgment handed down by Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa in the Manila Regional Trial Court, finding Ms Ressa guilty of the criminal offence of “cyber libel”.
Ms Ressa, former CNN bureau chief and one of four journalists named Time’s Person of the Year in 2018, stood accused of libelling businessman Wilfredo Keng in an article published on news website, Rappler.com. More information about the case is available here.
Today, the Court found Ms Ressa and her co-Defendant, reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr, guilty of the crime of cyberlibel. Ms Ressa was sentenced to a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 6 years imprisonment and granted bail pending appeal. A fine of approximately $8,000 (P400,000) was also imposed.
Ms Clooney said of today’s verdict: “Today a court in the Philippines became complicit in a sinister action to silence a journalist for exposing corruption and abuse. This conviction is an affront to the rule of law, a stark warning to the press, and a blow to democracy in the Philippines. I hope that the appeals court will set the record straight in this case. And that the United States will take action to protect their citizen and the values of their Constitution.”
Ms Gallagher said: “Independent journalism in the Philippines is an act of bravery. At least 16 journalists have been killed since President Duterte came to office in 2016, and today’s verdict comes just weeks since the country’s largest media network was shut down. Maria Ressa’s conviction on baseless charges, for an article she did not write, under a draconian law which did not exist when the article was published, is an ugly stain on the Philippines’ reputation. The international community must condemn this grave attack on independent journalism and media freedom in the strongest terms.”
Remarkably, seven further cases remain pending against Ms Ressa, exposing her potentially to decades in prison. The barrage of cases against Ms Ressa, which allege illegal foreign media ownership of her news site and alleged tax offences, are equally spurious, and an act of retaliation by the current administration against her reporting, which has exposed corruption and abuses, including the execution of thousands of Filipinos in the name of a war on drugs.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has characterised the cases against Ms Ressa as an act of “persecution” by a “bully government.” In December 2019, the US Senate also criticised the cases, holding that they were “widely viewed by human rights observers and a number of governments as part of a pattern of ‘‘weaponizing the rule of law’’ to repress independent media.”
Ms Clooney and Ms Gallagher lead the international counsel team acting for Ms Ressa, working with fellow barristers Can Yeginsu and Claire Overman. The team is also working closely with Peter Lichtenbaum, Stephen Rademaker, Lisa Peets and Ambassador Daniel Feldman of Covington & Burling LLP, as well as Ms Ressa’s counsel team in Manila.
