Finance Court of Appeal acquits journalist and Nobel laureate on all four tax evasion charges that could land her in prison for decades.
Philippine Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa and her online news agency Rappler have been acquitted of tax evasion.
An appeals court ruling on Wednesday gave Ressa a victory in a case she has described as part of a pattern of harassment. If convicted, she faced 34 years in prison.
Ressa, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, is the director of Rappler, which has gained a reputation for her in-depth reporting and rigorous scrutiny of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Today facts win. truth wins. Justice wins,” an emotional Ressa said after Wednesday’s verdict.
“These charges, as you know, were politically motivated, they were a blatant abuse of power and intended to prevent journalists from doing their jobs,” she told reporters.
“In these cases, capital markets, the rule of law and freedom of the press collide. So this acquittal does not only apply to Rappler. It is for every Filipino who has ever been wrongly accused.”
The tax evasion case arose from allegations by the State Revenue Commissioner that Rappler had omitted from his tax returns the proceeds of a 2015 sale of depositary receipts to foreign investors. This later became the basis for the securities regulator to revoke the news agency’s license.
Rappler remains in operation and is fighting an order from the Securities and Exchange Commission to shut it down.
Ressa, 59, still faces three other criminal charges, including a conviction for cyber defamation, which is currently being appealed and could face nearly seven years in prison.
Amnesty International welcomed Wednesday’s verdict and urged the authorities to drop the remaining cases. The rights group said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should also review the laws under which she was indicted under his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.
“The Cybercrime Prevention Act’s cyber defamation provision continues to be abused and misused by authorities to intimidate journalists and harass human rights defenders who tell the truth to power,” Amnesty International Philippines executive director Butch Olano said in a statement. “This practice threatens the right to freedom of expression and the press, further fueling government impunity.”
Marcos Jr. said in September he would not interfere in Ressa’s cases, citing the separation of powers between the executive and judiciary branches.
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in Asia for journalists. It was ranked 147th out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.
The Committee to Protect Journalists ranked seventh globally in its 2021 Impunity Index, which tracks the deaths of media members whose killers are released.