PCP statement on Ressa’s conviction

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa arrives at the Manila City Hall for the promulgation of the cyber libel case filed against her and the online news organization Rappler. Photo by Jire Carreon/PCP

We stand with Rappler and the rest of the persecuted media.

We demand press freedom! We demand the equal protection of the law!

While trolls have their way by continuing to threaten legitimate media in the practice of their profession, even to the point of branding media personalities as communists, we see that the long arm of the law would rather extend to those just doing their jobs.

Convicting Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. for an 'updated article,' that was already beyond the prescriptive period for libel smacks of a targeted attack on media that has been publishing not only glossy stories on the administration.

The moro-moro in congress on the ABS-CBN franchise is another. There are also continued killings of media personalities and harassment of alternative media.

We see all this as intimidation. We see this ultimately as efforts to have a chilling effect on the media.

Left and right, the administration's decisions on the coronavirus pandemic seem to have no direction except to push us further into danger.

Yet the media has been 'kindly' covering the various departments in deference to the situation we are in. Despite this, the administration seems to have another priority in the anti-terror bill, despite having the Human Security Act already in place.

What is it afraid of and what is it trying to hide from the media that it seems to have trained its sights on persecuting the fourth estate?

Critical reporting is important in a democracy and the people should see the workings of the Duterte administration, warts and all. Any move to limit this basic freedom enshrined in the Constitution is an attack on freedom of speech.

We will not be cowed. We will continue to respect the people's right to information. We will continue to fight for our democratic right to a free media.