Meddlesome monkeys

What do foreign entities including a United Nations (UN) representative have to do with a simple cyber libel case in the Philippines?

The case filed by businessman William Keng against online news site Rappler founder Maria Ressa and former Rappler writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. was based on a 2012 report, which Keng said defamed his name.

All of a sudden, big names in the international legal limelight such as Amal Clooney and United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye are lawyering for Ressa, which without doubt was meant to exert unfair pressure on the local court.

Despite their stature, Clooney and Kaye would have little knowledge of the laws and legal processes in the country.

Clooney in an opinion piece in the Washington Post cited the “Princeton-educated Filipino-American woman who was a CNN bureau chief and Time person of the year” in her defense of Ressa that was clearly an effort to apply weight on Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa.

Clooney added that Montesa “will determine whether this award-winning journalist — who has reported on corruption and abuses, including the execution of thousands of Filipinos in the name of a war on drugs — should be convicted of the crime of ‘cyber libel’ and sent to prison for up to seven years,” which was a pitch that needed no explaining.

Then Clooney went into the merits of the case that is not allowed under the sub judice provision.

Then she delivered her coup de grace linking President Rody Duterte to the case. “We live in a world where torturing, murdering and dismembering a journalist at a consulate leads to very little consequence, let alone full judicial accountability. And Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has himself warned that journalists are spies who are not exempted from assassination,” the celebrity lawyer said in a stretch.

“His administration has recently pushed through draconian new laws, and last month took the largest broadcaster in the country, ABS-CBN, off the air. But independent judges should not be complicit in such government abuse. They are our only hope to counter it,” she said, casting away any pretension.

Kaye for his part, submitted a so-called “defense of journalism” brief to the Manila court handling the cyber libel case against Rappler in line with the argument that the case is part of efforts to suppress media freedom. The UN representative said the amicus brief will “provide the Honorable Court with a greater understanding of the role of journalists and the special protection all Member States must accord.”

Accordingly, the intervention was meant “to help the court” decide a case, which is a type of legal action that the Supreme Court solicits, but is unusual in a lower court more so with an ordinary case such as cyber libel.

Cases involving Filipino journalists accused of cyber libel is not something unique and which warrant international controversy.

The effort to link the charges against Ressa to the President is the key reason for putting it in high-profile.

The local court should prevent itself from being sucked into the maneuvers of the foreign supporters of Ressa and avoid a precedent in which the independence of the judiciary system is compromised.

“Cases involving Filipino journalists accused of cyber libel is not something unique and which warrant international controversy.

“Despite their stature, Clooney and Kaye would have little knowledge of the laws and legal processes in the country.