Philippines journalist to know fate in highly criticised case on Monday

In February, 2014 Philippines news website Rappler corrected a typographical error on a story it had published two years earlier. This has now been used by government agencies to have the authors — Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr — jailed for up to 12 years.

The initial story had spelt the word “evasion” as “evation”.

Ms Ressa is an award winning journalist who previously worked for CNN and has nearly four decades’ experience. In 2018, she was named among Time magazine’s people of the year.

Mr Santos Jr is a former writer and researcher at Rappler.

Prosecutors now argue that in correcting the typo, Rappler republished an updated version of the story whose subject, suspected drug trafficker Wilfredo Fang, insists was defamatory of him. The article highlighted links between former Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was then facing impeachment, and Mr Fang.

Lawmakers in Philippines made cyber-libel a felony in 2012, meaning a guilty verdict carries a jail term.

Three years after the typo correction, Mr Fang filed a complaint against Rappler with the National Bureau of Investigation (NIB). In Philippines, the law provides for a one-year window to take legal action for libel. Mr Fang filed his complaint in 2017 — five years after the initial publication and two years after the correction.

On Monday, judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa will deliver her verdict, which is likely to have far reaching effects on media laws across the globe, whichever way the court’s decision swings.

Judge Estacio-Montesa decisions will set a precedent likely to be used in several jurisdictions. In essence, the judge’s decision could be a firm authority on whether or not courts can go against time frames prescribed by law and reopen cases that would otherwise be dead on arrival.

The case could also open the door for journalists and bloggers to face prosecution multiple times over a single story.

The court’s decision will have implications on limitation of action laws around the world, as it could be used as an authority to open cases where time for filing or prosecution has lapsed.

This is case worth following because some jurisdictions with questionable judicial processes could use it to oppress those critical of government.

“If the judge finds me guilty … (she) would be saying we are now accepting republication, but we would challenge that all the way to the Supreme Court,” Ms Ressa said at a webinar on Wednesday.

Ms Ressa says she is worried about being sentenced to jail, but more worried that a guilty verdict would mean that the government would have found a new way to silence people critical of it.

“On average there aren’t too many cases against journalists. In Philippines, if people have a beef with you, they don’t file a case, they do something else. In Philippines journalists get killed,” Ms Ressa said. And she is not wrong — in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte publicly said that some of journalists deserved to die.

During the probe, NBI ignored protests by the two journalists that the one-year window had lapsed.  They were also arrested past business hours in what was seen as an attempt to have them held for longer and deny them access to courts. Their arrest followed a warrant issued by judge Estacio-Montesa.

Since January, 2018 Ms Ressa has been arrested at least seven times with 11 cases brought against her in an attempt to silence the journalist and Rappler.