Maria Ressa faces second cyber libel charge

Maria Ressa is now facing a second charge of cyber libel after tweeting a screenshot of a supposedly libellous article.

The Alliance for Journalists' Freedom urges the Duterte regime to drop these charges.

Ressa filed a motion to quash the recent charge, citing that a journalist should be responsible for the caption accompanying the shared screenshot, not the screenshot itself.

Ressa's caption was as follows:

“Here’s the 2002 article on the ‘private businessman’ who filed the cyber libel case, which was thrown out by the NBI then revived by the DOJ. #HoldTheLine”

Her motion to quash noted that "by any reasonable and unbiased reading, the sentence is not defamatory—read singly, none of the words are; read together, the sentence is not. The sentence is correct, true, and factual"

Ressa is currently facing 7 other charges. Read the Rappler piece on this here.

Picture credit: The Guardian