JUDY WOODRUFF: One week ago,
a court in the Philippines
convicted one of the country's
most prominent journalists
of cyber-libel.
Press freedom advocates quickly
called the trial unfair and
part of a larger crackdown
by Filipino President Rodrigo
Duterte on critical media,
and his political opponents.
Nick Schifrin picks up
the story of Maria Ressa.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Maria Ressa is
a Filipina-American journalist
who was once "TIME" magazine's
person of the year and
used to be CNN's Manila
bureau chief. She founded
Rappler, an independent
news site that investigates
Duterte without fear or favor.
In 2012, Rappler published
an article linking a
businessman connected
to Duterte with illegal
drugs and human
trafficking. Since then,
Ressa has been charged
with multiple crimes that
her lawyers call politically
motivated. All of those charges
add up to as much as 100
years in prison.
And Maria Ressa now
joins me from Manila.
Maria Ressa, what's the
state of press freedom
in the Philippines?
MARIA RESSA, CEO, Rappler: It's
death by 1,000 cuts, not just of
press freedom, but essentially
over the last four
years of our democracy.
But, certainly, what we have
seen just in the last two
months, the largest broadcaster
- - imagine, if CBS or CNN were
shut down by decree, right?
So, the largest broadcaster
here, ABS-CBN, is shut down.
The last time that happened was
when martial law was declared
in the '70s, and it was
shut down for 14 years.
They're still trying to fight
it. And then less -- a little
over a month later, here's
my conviction. It is the first
of eight criminal cases that
I face for being a journalist.
NICK SCHIFRIN: We haven't only
seen attacks on journalists.
We have seen attacks on the
Supreme Court chief justice,
on prominent legislatures, and,
of course, the war on drugs,
which the U.N. calls a murderous
crackdown that's killed
more than tens of thousands.
Is this part of a trend
in the Philippines?
MARIA RESSA: Absolutely.
And it's two.
The first is really, when we
saw in 2016, the weaponization
of social media. So the
attacks are coming exponentially
bottom up. And then it comes
top down by weaponizing
the law. The law is the tip
of the arrow that is used
to attack perceived critics.
I'm not a critical journalist,
in the sense that I didn't
set out to criticize President
Duterte. I just set out to do my
job, to hold power to account.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And what the
president says is that there's
a lot of crime that he needs
to crack down on, and that's
his defense. And the president's
allies also point out
that there is a commission
now to investigate some of the
murders against journalists.
MARIA RESSA: Of the tens of
thousands -- this is the U.N.'s
estimate -- of people killed
in the drug war, there's only
been one conviction of a case
that's been brought to court of
police.
It is impunity. And then
on the second front, in
terms of journalists,
we have seen exponential
lies, just my case alone. I
don't have to go very far. All
I have done is to do my job.
This case should have
been thrown out of
court, because the law we
allegedly violated wasn't
even in effect at the time
that that story was published.
The kind of legal acrobatics
to bring this to court
and to have a conviction
are mind-boggling.
NICK SCHIFRIN: What the
government says is that the
article was edited after the law
came into effect, and that the
cyber-crime law specifically
has no statute of limitations,
and that's what you
were convicted of.
MARIA RESSA: Both are wrong,
essentially, because, in
2014, someone in Rappler fixed
a typographical error.
They fixed one letter of
one word. It's a typo.
And, for that, myself, I and one
of my former colleagues can go
to jail for six years. That's
the first.
The second is the statute of
limitations for libel -- the
Constitution is very clear on
this -- it's one year. Our
laws are clear. And yet, to
convict us, it was changed. The
judge, Judge Montesa's court
says, it's now 12 years.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The issues
of press freedom in Asia are
larger than in the Philippines.
The day that you were convicted,
I talked to Steven Butler,
the Committee to Protect
Journalists' Asia coordinator.
And this is what he said.
STEVEN BUTLER, Committee
to Protect Journalists:
You have seen it across
the board, in Cambodia,
in Malaysia, Philippines,
Thailand. India
has been terrible.
So this is part of a broad trend
that -- and that has forced
press freedom further into
retreat from what we have
seen in recent years.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Why is that
retreat happening, do you think?
MARIA RESSA: I think
of two reasons.
The first is that our
information ecosystem
has fundamentally
changed with the power of
technology. So, starting in
2016, we pointed out that these
cheap armies on social media
are literally changing
the facts, right?
And it's not just in the
Philippines. It's in the United
States. What we -- what has
happened here is happening
to you. So, when facts
are debatable, then
you have no integrity
of anything.
The second reason is because
there's almost like a dictator's
playbook that we're seeing
all around the world. They're
using the vulnerability
of the information
ecosystem, social media,
and they -- what we
thought would be an
enabling and empowering
tool has now turned into a
despot's tool.
NICK SCHIFRIN: You mentioned
the United States. The
U.S. State Department
did release a statement
the day after you were
convicted decrying the case.
Has the U.S. done enough?
MARIA RESSA: We would like
to see more of the ideals of
the United States. The rest
of the world has felt a little
bit of its absence in terms
of press freedom issues.
Having said that, no matter
what the U.S. or any other
country says, this is a Filipino
problem. And Filipinos must
step up and demand their rights.
Otherwise, we're going to lose
it.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Maria
Ressa, thank you very much.