Once Again, Courts Are A Dictator’s Best Friend

Michael Hedges June 17, 2020 - Follow on Twitter

Rampant is the trampling of basic rights across the world. Authoritarians and dictators hold all the cards. Not only do armies follow orders, so do judges. And that just trickles down.

Few were surprised when a Philippines court this week (June 15) sentenced Rappler co-founder and chief executive Maria Ressa to a possible six year prison term for committing “cyber libel.” Rappler has been an independent online news portal in the Philippines, often providing investigative reporting, since 2012. Prior to the founding of Rappler, Ms Ressa served as Manila bureau chief for CNN, moving to the Jakarta, Indonesia bureau as head of CNN’s Southeast Asia bureau. Also sentenced was Rappler journalist Reynaldo Santos Jr. Both were released pending appeal.

She was arrested in February 2019 on a warrant from Manila Regional court judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa for “cyber libel,” a charge based on 2012 investigative reporting published in Rappler. The law enshrining “cyber libel” was passed four months after the publication data. The trial began in July last year. In 2018, she and Rappler Holding Corporation were charged with tax evasion. Ms. Ressa and Rappler are facing no fewer than six other criminal charges

Trial judge Montesa called Rappler’s correction of a typographical error a re-publication of “hearsay,” reported Manila Bulletin (June 16). “The right to free speech and freedom of the press cannot and should not be used as a shield against accountability.” She referred to the title of executive editor rather than editor-in-chief in Rappler’s organizational chart as a “clever ruse to avoid liability.” She then had the audacity to quote Nelson Mandela.

Channeling another authoritarian, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte once called Rappler a "fake news outlet,” reported Reuters (January 16 2018), as the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission ruled the publisher was in violation of foreign ownership rules, another case still pending. Rappler has been a vocal critic of president Duterte’s rule, particularly his fondness for extrajudicial killings. He described Rappler as “throwing trash and shit all along.”

The tone of president Duterte’s attacks on journalists and the news media was set in stone at his inauguration. “Just because you're a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination, if you're a son of a bitch. Freedom of expression cannot help you if you have done something wrong.” Another news voice critical of president Duterte, television network ABS-CBN, was forced off the air in a specious licensing dispute.

Human rights and press freedom advocates quickly and universally condemned the sentence and the trial. “This verdict is a sham and should be quashed,” wrote Amnesty International Asia-Pacific regional director Nicholas Bequelin (June 15). “The accusations against them are political, the prosecution was politically-motivated, and the sentence is nothing but political.”

“This is how democracy dies in the 21st century: in a musty courtroom, with a judge invoking Mandela,” offered Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University director Sheila Coronel in The Atlantic (June 16). “Just the steady drip, drip, drip of the erosion of democratic norms, the corruption of institutions, and the cowardly compromises of decision makers in courts and congresses.”

“This is an outrageous abuse of the judicial process,” said Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) chief executive Harlan Mandel in a statement (June 15). “The retroactive application of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, brought six years past expiration of the statute of limitations, violates all norms of due process. Maria has been convicted for the independence of Rappler’s journalism and for daring to speak truth to power.” MDIF is an indirect investor in Rappler Holding Corporation.

The Philippines ranked 136th in the Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, between Oman and Palestine. “By passing this extremely harsh sentence at the end of utterly Kafkaesque proceedings, the Philippine justice system has demonstrated a complete lack of independence from the executive,” noted RSF Asia-Pacific director Daniel Bastard, in a statement (June 15). “This sentence bears the malevolent mark of president Duterte and his desire, by targeting Rappler and the figure of Maria Ressa, to eliminate all criticism whatever the cost. We urge Manila’s judges to restore a semblance of credibility to the Philippine judicial system by overturning this conviction on appeal.”

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