LOOK HOW THEY ARE ‘EXPLOITING’ THE ARREST OF RAPPLER’S MARIA RESSA.
“Media is being harassed,” critics here and abroad say. “They’re politicizing it,” say defenders of the administration against political rivals.
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Defenders of free press and free speech use it to argue that there is a “pattern” of persecution to harass and perhaps silence critical media. It also provides a reason for independent journalists to feel concern if not alarm.
The arrest would’ve been just like the arrest of any other journalist sued for libel: the arrest-and-bail routine. Ressa’s didn’t come out like that. Previous charge and arrest for tax violation and President Duterte’s rant against Rappler, plus Ressa’s world-celebrity status made the new arrest stand out.
Independent journalists now have cause for concern if not alarm: They could be the next. Those who pick targets in the press may not be as prudent as one would wish.
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of dissent, lumping it with similar offensives against the likes of Trillanes and de Lima and, in thepress, the threats against ABS-CBN, Inquirer and Rappler.
“It’s being politicized,” administration supporters say.
In a democratic setting. where media reports and comments on politics and the conduct of government, that is unavoidable. Each political camp necessarily uses the rival group’s excess or failing. More so, in an election season where the outcome may be cited as referendum on the first half of the administration’s term.
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Side issues such as the motive in filing the complaint or the excess of zeal in serving the warrant of arrest may alter the focus on whether libel was committed under existing law and jurisprudence. Ressa and Rappler are also suspected of using the “victim” label to help its economic interest, aside from raising it to defend the charge against it.
Critics of the administration use it to prove the present leaders’ alleged intolerance
The issue of abuse of press freedom may be used to distract from the core question in the Ressa case: Was there libel and was it punishable under existing law?