Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 26)— Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. have formally asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to reconsider its decision to uphold their cyber libel conviction.
In their motion for reconsideration filed July 22 — a copy of which was released to the media on Tuesday — Ressa and Santos called on the CA to dismiss a Manila court’s 2020 ruling convicting them of cyber libel, to acquit them of the crime, and to set aside the damages the court had prescribed.
The appellants cited “errors” in the court’s judgment, listing down how CA claimed, among others, that a correction of a typographical error in the story translated to republication.
Ressa and Santos also lamented that the court “violated their rights” when it insisted on extending the one-year prescription for libel and hiked the penalty for the case.
“The attacks against Rappler are political, not legal, aimed at preventing us from doing our jobs as journalists,” Ressa said. “I appeal to the justices to uphold the spirit of the law that holds our democracy together,” she added.
The case stemmed from a May 2012 Rappler article which reported on businessman Wilfredo Keng’s alleged connection to illegal activities. Keng filed the complaint in October 2017, or nearly five years after the article was posted.
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46’s June 2020 decision previously sentenced the Nobel Prize winner and Santos to a maximum of six years in jail, but the appellate court modified and lengthened the maximum prison time to up to six years, eight months and 20 days.
READ: Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher/writer Reynaldo Santos file motion for reconsideration seeking to reverse Court of Appeals ruling upholding their cyber libel conviction. https://t.co/aKKwOwgGRQ | @anjocalimario pic.twitter.com/2yvFpjKSj0
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) July 26, 2022
