Court ruling on cyber libel case vs. Rappler out on June 15

A Manila court will promulgate its decision on the cyber libel case against Rappler on June 15.

Only parties to the case and their lawyers will be allowed inside the courtroom during the promulgation of judgment on June 15, 8:30 a.m., according to the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46.

The court said the restriction is in line with safety protocols against COVID-19.

The promulgation of judgment was initially scheduled for April.

Government prosecutors filed charges against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former reporter Reynaldo Santos, Jr. over an article the news website published in 2012, months before the anti-cybercrime law was enacted.

The article cites an intelligence report that linked businessman Wilfredo Keng, the private complainant, to human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Investigators at the National Bureau of Investigation reportedly dismissed Keng's complaint in 2018. But the complaint was transmitted to the Department of Justice for preliminary investigation a week later.

Prosecutors indicted Ressa and Santos in 2019 over a version of the story that was allegedly republished in 2014. Rappler argued the 2014 update was just to correct a typographical error.

Ressa and Rappler face other cases for alleged tax evasion and violation of the anti-dummy law. She has called the cases acts of harassment. — BM, GMA News