EU parliament urges Philippines to drop charges vs Ressa, renew ABS-CBN franchise

The European Parliament has urged the Philippine government to drop charges against Rappler chief Maria Ressa and renew the franchise of the shuttered broadcast network ABS-CBN.

In a Joint Motion For a Resolution dated September 16, the parliament sounded the alarm over the “deteriorating level of press freedom in the Philippines,” citing the cyberlibel conviction of Ressa and a former Rappler researcher-writer as well as the shutdown of ABS-CBN.

“[The parliament] condemns all threats, harassment, intimidation, unfair prosecutions, and violence against journalists, including the case of Maria Ressa; calls for all politically motivated charges against her and her colleagues to be dropped,” the EU Parliament said.

The parliament also called on European Delegation and European member states’ representatives in Manila to closely monitor developments on the case against Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. and provide all necessary assistance.

Ressa and Santos were convicted in June of cyberlibel charges filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng.

The European parliament also stressed that “press freedom and freedom of expression are fundamental components of democracy” and called on the Philippine government “to renew the broadcast license of the main audio-visual group, ABS-CBN.”

The media giant was shut down by the National Telecommunications Commission in May following the lapse of its legislative franchise.

Human rights concerns

The parliament also urged “impartial, transparent, independent and meaningful investigations into all extrajudicial killings, including the deaths of Jory Porquia, Randall ‘Randy’ Echanis and Zara Alvarez.”

Porquia, Echanis, and Alvarez were all activists killed this year by unidentified assailants.

The European parliament also included an appealed to Philippine authorities to “drop all politically motivated charges against Senator Leila de Lima, to release her while she awaits trial, to allow her to freely exercise her rights and duties as an elected representative, and to provide her with adequate security and sanitary conditions while in detention.”

“[The parliament] condemns all threats, harassment, intimidation, rape and violence against those who seek to expose allegations of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations in the country [and] denounces the misuse of the law and judiciary systems as a means of silencing critical voices,” it said. -- BAP, GMA News