Fake News & Democracy In The Philippines
A journalist Maria Ressa has been found guilty of libel in the Philippines' in a case seen as a test of the country's media freedom. The prosecution came under a "cyber-libel" law which came into force in September 2012. Ironically, preventing fake news is what Ressa, the executive editor of Rappler, a Philippines-based digital news site, fights for every day.
The former CNN journalist is the head of a news site that's critical of President Rodrigo Duterte. When misinformation and disinformation run rampant and journalists are blocked from speaking truth to power, democracy will die a death by “a thousand cuts,” says journalist Maria Ressa.
Launched on Facebook in 2012, before emerging as a fully-fledged news website with a monthly audience of 12 million, Rappler was among the first publications anywhere in the world to shine a light on how leaders can harness social media to win power.
Ressa, who previously worked at CNN, put herself in the crosshairs as a vocal critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his war on drugs. Duterte’s drug war and the investigative reporting in Rappler provides the backdrop to Ramona Diaz’s new documentary, ‘A Thousand Cuts’ which is releassed in the US next month.
When Duterte came to power in May 2016, it wasn’t the first time Ressa interacted with the new president. She had interviewed him when he was the mayor of Davao in 2015, during the run-up to the presidenThe Philippines is among the deadliest nations for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. tial election, when he admitted to have killed people in the past. In 2016, Rappler began covering Duterte’s drug war.
That uncovered and ignited the disinformation campaigns against those who have criticized and spoken out against the administration, including Ressa and Rappler reporters.
The film follows Ressa as she responds to charges of cyber libel from prosecutors in the Philippines Department of Justice.
The charges related to a May 29, 2012, Rappler report on wealthy businessman Wilfredo Keng’s ties to drug dealing and human trafficking. Earlier this month, a Manila court found Ressa and another Rappler reporter guilty.
Ressa was sentenced to up to six years in prison and is currently on bail as she looks at her legal options. She says the verdict is significant because it codifies the “kind of abuses that we have lived through in the last four years.” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called the law “a human rights disaster in the making” that will “open the door to arbitrary arrests and long prison sentences” for the president’s critics.
Defending Democracy
Ressa was educated grew up in the US and only returned to the country in the 1980s after the fall of authoritarian leader Ferdinand Marcos. A former CNN journalist, she founded Rappler in 2012. It is one of the few local sites to openly criticise the Duterte administration and its brutal war on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives.
The media organisation is among the country's most popular news sites, in part because of its focus on a younger audience and embracing social media.
As news organisations struggle to adapt to rapid technological change in the face of difficult economic circumstances, there is growing interest in identifying successful strategies for managing change in the news industry in productive and sustainable ways.
Defending press freedom and demanding accountability from the platforms are now at the core of Rappler’s mission. ‘You can’t be independent if you can’t survive’, Maria Ressa.
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