Philippine journalist Maria Ressa was convicted Monday of
cyber libel and faces up to six years behind bars in a case that watchdogs say
marks a dangerous erosion of press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte.
Ressa, 56, and her news site Rappler have been the target of
a series of criminal charges and probes after publishing stories critical of
Duterte's policies, including his drug war that has killed thousands.
The award-winning former CNN journalist was sentenced to up
to six years' jail in the culmination of a case that has drawn international
concern.
It was not immediately clear how long she would actually
have to serve if the conviction becomes final, and Judge Rainelda
Estacio-Montesa allowed Ressa to remain free on bail pending an appeal.
"We are going to stand up against any kind of attacks
against press freedom," a defiant Ressa told journalists after the
conviction in Manila.
"I began as a reporter in 1986 and I have worked in so
many countries around the world, I have been shot at and threatened but never
this kind of death by a thousand cuts," she said.
Monday's verdict decided a trial that stemmed from a
businessman's 2017 complaint over a Rappler story five years earlier about his
alleged ties to a then-judge on the nation's top court.
Ressa, who Time magazine named as a Person of the Year in
2018, did not write the article and government investigators initially
dismissed the businessman's allegation.
But state prosecutors later filed charges against her and
Reynaldo Santos, the former Rappler journalist who wrote it, under a
controversial cyber crime statute aimed at online offences such as stalking and
child pornography.
Santos was also found guilty on Monday and allowed to remain
free on bail.
The law they are accused of violating took effect in
September 2012, months after the article was published. (AFP)
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