DUTERTE'S abusive and undemocratic WEAPONIZATION OF THE law against MARIA RESSA.
"INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS AMAL CLOONEY called "absurd" the latest cyber libel charge against RAPPLER CEO MARIA RESSA, which stemmed from the SECOND COMPLAINT of WILFREDO KENG, the same businessman who had already gotten the journalist CONVICTED months before.
“This absurd case threatens to send a journalist to prison for a SINGLE TWEET that simply REPOSTS AN OLD NEWSPAPER ARTICLE," Clooney said in a statement on Thursday, December 3.
Clooney and fellow UK lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher lead Ressa's international legal team.
"THREATENING a journalist with CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AND IMPRISONMENT for an INNOCUOUS TWEET AND SCREENGRAB is the behavior of a DESPOTIC REGIME, not a proud democracy with a long constitutional tradition of respect for FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION," Gallagher said.
Ressa was charged and ordered arrested last week for CYBER LIBEL, over a TWEET she made in 2019 where the journalist posted SCREENSHOTS OF AN OLD ARTICLE LINKING BUSINESSMAN KENG TO AN ALLEGED MURDER.
Ressa posted SCREENSHOTS of the article because the news website that published it, PHILSTAR.COM, DELETED THE STORY that day after KENG raised the possibility of LEGAL ACTION.
Charging over SCREENSHOTS is uncharted territory in the young Philippine cybercrime law because the SUPREME COURT has ALREADY RULED that SHARING a supposedly libelous post is NOT A CRIME."
SOURCE - https://www.rappler.com/nation/amal-clooney-calls-maria-ressa-second-cyber-libel-charge-absurd?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
