Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, executive editor of online publication Rappler, was convicted of cyber libel by a Manila court on Monday, June 15.
Also convicted was researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos. The company, Rappler, was declared to have no liability.
Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa ruled that Ressa and Santos are guilty of cyber libel charges and sentenced both to six months and one day to up to six years in jail.
The charges stemmed from a case filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng who demanded 50-million pesos in damages from the news organization.
In a May 2012 article on the late former chief justice Renato Corona’s links to businessmen, Santos quoted an intelligence report linking Keng to drugs and human trafficking.
Keng filed the complaint in 2017 or five years later, beyond the more typical one-year prescription period for libel under the Revised Penal Code.
Ressa and Santos won’t have to go to jail because the conviction is appealable all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ressa and Santos are entitled to post-conviction bail while they exhaust legal remedies in higher courts.
