Free press wins as Maria Ressa acquitted of another trumped up charge

Maria Ressa overjoyed after the court acquits the Filipino American journalist.

Chalk up another win for democracy and the free press in the Philippines.

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and her online news outlet Rappler were acquitted by the Philippines Regional Trial Court Tuesday (Sept. 12, 2023) on the final criminal tax charge leveled against them by the regime of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Ressa , 59, had a smile on her face as the judge delivered the acquittal, said AFP news agency. "You gotta have faith," she told journalists after the verdict was rendered.

"The acquittal now strengthens our resolve to continue with the justice system, to submit ourselves to the court despite the political harassment, despite the attack on press freedom," added the Fillipino American journalist Ressa, who spent part of her youth in New Jersey and graduated from Princeton University. She frequently visits family who still reside in New Jersey.

The judgment comes after a legal battle lasting nearly five years. If they had lost the case, Ressa could have been jailed for up to 10 years, while Rappler would have faced a fine.

“This verdict underlines that it is possible for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to chart a different course to his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who waged a relentless campaign of media repression,” said the Hold The Line Coalition Steering Committee, an international coalition of free press advocates.

“We hope this judgment signals a revival of judicial independence in the Philippines after the previous administration’s instrumentalization of the courts as a means to erode press freedom and discredit independent reporting,” the Hold the Line Coalition said.

Ressa and Rappler were charged in connection with an alleged failure to accurately report financial details on their tax return pertaining to an amount of approximately US$ 11,000. But they have already paid twice that amount in bail and travel bonds associated with the charge.

In January, Ressa and Rappler were acquitted of four tax evasion cases before the Court of Tax Appeals in Manila in an emphatic victory.

While the verdict represents another reprieve, Rappler and Ressa, still face a sustained campaign of legal persecution and online violence, with 23 individual cases against them opened by the government since 2018.

Rappler and Ressa have maintained their innocence and continue to fight three other cases, including Ressa’s 2020 conviction on a trumped-up charge of criminal cyber libel, currently in the final phase of appeal before the Supreme Court. In that case alone, Ressa faces a seven-year jail sentence.

In an historic precedent, Rappler was officially issued a shutdown order in June 2022, reinforcing an earlier decision to revoke the outlet’s license to operate. The order was the first of its kind for the issuing agency and for Philippine media. The threat of shutdown lingers.

“This is a victory not just for Rappler but for everyone who has kept the faith that a free and responsible press empowers communities and strengthens democracy,” Rappler said in a statement.

“As an immediate next step, we call on the government to abandon all remaining cases against Rappler and Ressa, and in doing so, put a long-overdue end to their persecution,” in a statement issued by the Coalition.

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