Ressa, who has aggressively covered Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, is bracing for a verdict in a libel case and says she sees the upcoming decision as "an existential moment” for democracy in the Philippines. — AP
TOMORROW, June 15, Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 will issue her decision in the controversial cyberlibel case against journalist Maria Ressa, former Rappler researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr., and Rappler itself. The decision will be watched closely in newsrooms across the country and around the world.
Or will she find that Ressa, Santos, and Rappler have met the elements of libel, including the difficult criteria for malice, when the online news site published its story about the late former chief justice Renato Corona and his unseemly practice of using vehicles owned by “controversial businessmen, ” on May 29,2012?
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