Rappler’s chief executive officer Maria Ressa. (Photo by CATHRINE GONZALES / INQUIRER.net)
MANILA, Philippines — Broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour of CNN has called out what she said as a desperate move of the Philippine government as she urged President Rodrigo Duterte to free veteran journalist Maria Ressa.
You know a government is desperate when they arrest a journalist.
President Duterte: FREE @mariaressa NOW.@UNESCO@pressfreedom#MariaRessa#PressFreedom https://t.co/Ot4g3v6s34
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) February 13, 2019
“You know a government is desperate when they arrest a journalist,” Amanpour said in a tweet on Wednesday moments after Ressa, Rappler chief executive officer, was arrested at the online news site’s headquarters in Pasig City.
“President [Rodrigo] Duterte: FREE @mariaressa NOW,” Amanpour added.
Earlier, several agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Ressa by virtue of a warrant issued by Branch 46 of the Manila Regional Trial Court.
READ: Rappler’s Maria Ressa arrested for cyber libel
The warrant of arrest is for the cyberlibel case against her and a reporter over an article published in 2012.
The case stemmed from the complaint of business Wilfredo Keng, who was the subject of the article titled “CJ using SUVs of a controversial businessman.”
The article was referring to then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was under an impeachment trial at that time.
Keng has denied the allegation and requested Rappler take m the article down. Rappler instead updated the article in 2014.
Speaking with reporters after her arrest, Ressa said: “No amount of legal cases, black propaganda, and lies can silence Filipino journalists who continue to hold the line.” “These legal acrobatics show how far the government will go to silence journalists, including the pettiness of forcing me to spend the night in jail.”
Rappler has been critical of the Duterte administration, giving extensive coverage to the President’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.
Ressa also faces five cases of tax evasion before the Court of Tax Appeals and the Pasig City Regional Trial Court, which she earlier said had “no real basis.”
“I’m personally under attack. Rappler as a company is under attack. I think we all know that the line has been moved,” she said.
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