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'Foreign Ownership' Case Against Ressa Dismissed

by VOA News

   Washington --

   The legal team representing journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa
   welcomed a Philippine Justice Department decision Tuesday to drop a
   criminal case against the award-winning journalist.

   Ressa had been facing charges of alleged foreign ownership of her news
   website Rappler. If convicted, she could have faced up to 21 years in
   prison.

   "For years our brave client Maria Ressa has faced a barrage of spurious
   criminal investigations and prosecutions for doing her job -- for being
   a journalist. We are pleased to see another spurious case against Maria
   dismissed," Ressa's lawyer, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, said in a statement.

   The charges related to whether a 2015 investment from an American
   philanthropic investment fund allegedly violated a prohibition in
   Philippine law against foreign ownership or control of media
   organizations. Her international legal team said there was no evidence
   of any wrongdoing in the case.

   "Again, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins. We will continue to hold
   the line," Ressa said in a statement.

   The dismissal of the charges is the latest development in Ressa's
   multiyear legal saga in the Philippines, which media critics widely
   view as retaliatory.

   At one point, the Filipino American journalist faced a potential
   combined sentence of more than 100 years in jail for the multiple cases
   filed.

   The Philippine government has previously denied that the legal action
   against Ressa and Rappler is retaliatory.

   "This is an important victory for Maria and for the press. Maria has
   spent four years with these baseless charges hanging over her, and we
   are delighted that they have finally been dismissed," said Amal
   Clooney, who leads Ressa's international legal team with Gallagher at
   Doughty Street Chambers.

   In September, a Philippine court acquitted Ressa and Rappler of tax
   evasion charges.

   But other cases remain active. Ressa is on bail while appealing a 6
   ½-year prison sentence handed down in 2020 for cyber libel. She is
   also facing separate criminal proceedings, which carry a maximum
   15-year sentence, stemming from the same 2015 foreign investment.

   Rappler, meanwhile, is fighting a closure order issued by the
   Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.

   "We hope that the remaining charges will now be dropped so that justice
   can be restored, and journalism can thrive in the Philippines," Clooney
   said in a statement.