‘Takot sila, kaya nila tayo pinapatahimik!’ Hontiveros hits Ressa conviction, tells Filipinos to ‘speak out’

By JOHN CARLO M. CAHINHINAN

Senator Risa Hontiveros has raised concern over the cyber libel conviction of Rappler founder and CEO Maria Ressa.

In a statement, Hontiveros warned that the guilty verdict against Ressa and former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos in connection with the 2017 cyber libel complaint filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng “sends a chilling message to all.”

“Kung kritiko ka, pwede kang ipasara at pwede kang patahimikin,” said Hontiveros.

“First, they came for the journalists. We don’t know what happened after that,” she added.

Ressa and Santos’ conviction according to Hontiveros no doubt is an attack to the free press and journalists—a danger to the country’s democracy and to Filipinos.

In 2017, Keng has charged Ressa and Santos for alleged violation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 in connection with a story published in 2012, reporting Keng’s alleged involvement in human trafficking activities.

Ressa’s Rappler claimed that the story written by Santos was based on an intelligence report and was published months prior to the passage and initial implementation of the said law.

But Keng’s camp claimed that the supposed malicious story against him was again reposted sometime in 2014.

According to Hontiveros, the year 2020 “have witnessed the shutdown of a far-reaching media institution and the weaponization of the law against a journalist doing unbiased reporting on extrajudicial killings in the country.”

“I urge everyone to speak out. Dumarami tayo. We are complicit if we are silent. Takot sila, kaya nila tayo pinapatahimik,” she said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)