CPJ condemns cyber libel conviction in the Philippines
CPJ condemns cyber libel conviction in the Philippines involving a Rappler writer for a Facebook post on corruption. They urge authorities to halt filing baseless charges against journalists.
In the Philippines, a Quezon City court found Frank Cimatu, a writer for the independent Philippine news site Rappler, guilty of cyber libel, in relation to a Facebook post the journalist made in 2017 concerning alleged corruption by the then Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol. The court determined that the post was originally posted in a public environment, despite Cimatu’s claims that it was private and only visible to his Facebook friends.
Commenting on the court decision, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Philippine authorities not to contest the journalist’s appeal and to ‘stop filing spurious cyber libel charges against members of the press’.
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