Philippines arrests top journalist, Duterte critic on libel charge
Manila: Philippines government agents on Wednesday arrested the top executive of a news website critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s policies on a cyber-libel complaint she has dismissed as “baseless” and “baffling”.
Officers sent by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) served Maria Ressa, chief executive of online news platform Rappler, an arrest warrant issued by a local court on Tuesday at Rappler’s headquarters, as her staff took videos they livestreamed on Facebook.
“We are not intimidated. No amount of legal cases, black propaganda and lies can silence Filipino journalists who continue to hold the line,” she said. “These legal acrobatics show how far the government will go to silence journalists, including the pettiness of forcing me to spend the night in jail.”
The warrant stemmed from a complaint of cyber-libel filed in 2017 by businessman Wilfredo Keng.
Mr Keng featured in a 2012 Rappler
story, updated in 2014, that cited an intelligence report linking him to illegal activities such as human trafficking and drug smuggling.
Ms Ressa had argued that the statute of limitations on libel, which should also apply to cyber libel, had already expired so the NBI had no basis for investigating and charging her with the offence. As the Rappler story was published before the country’s cyber crime law took effect, “there was yet no crime of cyber libel to be committed,” she said.