DOJ decides to charge Maria Ressa with cyber libel

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has resolved to indict Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and a former reporter for cyber libel in connection with a story the news site published in 2012.

In a Jan. 10 resolution obtained Tuesday, the investigating prosecutors recommended the filing of a cyber libel case against Rappler, Inc., Ressa, and Reynaldo Santos, Jr.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who earlier confirmed the development, said the resolution may be appealed before his office.

The case stems from a complaint by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that acted on accusations by businessman Wilfredo Keng, who was linked to criminal activities in a Rappler report that was mainly about vehicles used by the late former chief justice, Renato Corona.

Published in May 2012 and updated in February 2014, the story written by Santos cited an "intelligence report" that said Keng had been under surveillance for alleged involvement in "human trafficking and drug smuggling."

The NBI transmitted its findings to the National Prosecution Service of the DOJ for preliminary investigation in March 2018, just a week after it was reported that the bureau would not pursue a case because Keng failed to lodge his complaint within a year of the story's publication.

"The publication complained of imputes to complainant Keng the commission of crimes. It is clearly defamatory," the DOJ said in the eight-page resolution.

During preliminary investigation, the respondents argued the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was not yet in effect when the article in question was published. Former president Benigno Aquino III signed the measure into law in September 2012.

They also said the crime, assuming it was committed, had prescribed because more than one year had elapsed after the story was published.

However, while it agreed the article was not covered by the law when it was first published, the DOJ said "we cannot share the same view with respect to the 19 February 2014 publication"—the updated version.

"Under the 'multiple publication rule,' a single defamatory statement, if published several times, gives rise to as many offenses as there are publications," the DOJ said.

"Accordingly, we hold that the republication of the article as may have been modified or revised is a distinct and separate offense, for which the author, respondent Santos, should be prosecuted. Respondent Ressa, being the editor, should be included in the indictment."

In its story on the recent DOJ resolution, Rappler quoted Ressa as saying she was "wrongly named" as the assailed article's editor.

Also contrary to Rappler's assertion, the DOJ also said the alleged offense—cyber-libel and not libel because of the use of information technologies—has not prescribed.

Meanwhile, the DOJ dismissed the complaints against former and incumbent Rappler board members Manuel Ayala, Nico Jose Nolledo, Glenda Gloria, James Bitanga, Felicia Atienza, and Dan de Padua and former corporate secretary Jose Maria Hofileña due to the absence of evidence showing their participation in the alleged crime.

Rappler also faces tax evasion cases before the Court of Tax Appeals and one before a Pasig court.

In January 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's certificate of incorporation as it supposedly violated a foreign ownership restriction on mass media companies. Rappler has continued to operate while the decision has not attained finality. — BM, GMA News