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Maria Ressa, a veteran journalist and Nobel laureate widely considered the “face of the free press in the Philippines”, has been acquitted of tax evasion charges, in a case she has described as part of a pattern of harassment.
Speaking to the press after the verdict, an emotional Ressa said the charges against her and her news outlet, Rappler, had been an abuse of power, politically motivated, and designed to stop journalists from doing their jobs.
“These cases are where capital markets, rule of law, [and] where press freedom meet so this acquittal is not just for Rappler, it’s for every Filipino who has ever been unjustly accused,” she said. “Today, facts win, truth wins, justice wins.”
Ressa, the chief executive and co-founder of Rappler was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2021 for her work to “safeguard freedom of expression” and was praised for exposing abuses of power and growing authoritarianism under then Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte. Her publication earned a reputation for its in-depth reporting and tough scrutiny of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.
Rappler welcomed the court decision as “the triumph of facts over politics.”
“We thank the court for this just decision and for recognising that the fraudulent, false, and flimsy charges made by the Bureau of Internal Revenue do not have any basis in fact,” the organisation said in a statement. “An adverse decision would have had far-reaching repercussions on both the press and the capital markets.”
Since 2018, Ressa has faced a range of civil and criminal charges in what is widely considered a campaign to silence dissent. Since its inception, Rappler has covered contentious topics such as the abuse of power by Duterte, the “war on drugs” and his supporters’ use of social media to spread misinformation.
The case against Ressa alleged that Rappler had failed to include proceeds of a 2015 sale of depositary receipts to foreign investors in its tax returns.
The Philippines justice department said it respected the decision of the court.
Ressa and Rappler face three more legal cases, a separate tax case filed by prosecutors in another court, her supreme court appeal on an online libel conviction, and Rappler’s appeal against the closure order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We keep going,” Ressa when asked on Wednesday about the other cases. “You prepare for the worst-case scenario, and you keep going.”
Ressa remains on bail as she appeals against the six-year prison sentence for the libel conviction, but observers called Wednesday’s verdict a crucial win for press freedom.
“The acquittal is clearly welcome news and a boon for press freedom in the Philippines,” said Carlos H Conde, a senior Philippines researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Since Duterte targeted her and Rappler for their reporting on the ‘drug war’, Maria has become an icon for independent, fierce journalism”, Conde said.
The National Union for Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement: “While colleagues similarly face legal challenges – from libel to made up terrorism charges – in relation to their work, we take inspiration from this acquittal that if we stand up and hold the line, we can win.”
The media landscape in the country, Conde said, for the past several years has been dominated by “bad news, despair, and fear”, with journalists often working in precarious situations.
Since 1992, 94 journalists have been killed in the country, the most recent of which took place in October last year when broadcaster Percival Mabasa was gunned down inside his car. The Philippines ranks at 147 out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.
“President Marcos has the duty to ensure that journalists operate freely and without free”, Conde added.
Despite this backdrop, Ressa, who is author of the book How to Stand Up to a Dictator, said she had had faith in the court. “It took four years and two months. We came to court [and] we believed in the court despite everything that was happening.”
Trouble for Ressa and Rappler began in 2016, when Duterte came to power and launched a drug war in which, according to official data, more than 6,200 people were killed in police anti-narcotics operations.
Rights groups estimate tens of thousands were killed.
Rappler was among the domestic and foreign media outlets that published shocking images of the killings and questioned the crackdown’s legal basis.
Local broadcaster ABS-CBN – also critical of Duterte – lost its free-to-air licence, while Ressa and Rappler endured a series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks.
Duterte’s government said previously it had nothing to do with any of the cases against Ressa.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
English (US)