Dear Friends,

What a relief! After years of fighting alongside the Hold The Line coalition, Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa won a major victory against the Philippine government on 18 January. By being acquitted of tax evasion, she avoided the possibility of 34 years in prison and a heavy fine for Rappler, the news site she founded.

Maria Ressa, her colleagues and Rappler are being subjected to an all-out campaign of judicial persecution and online violence, in which the authorities have brought 23 separate accusations against them since 2018. She is still facing a possible seven-year prison sentence under an earlier cyber-crime charge.

Last June, Rappler received an official shutdown order under a previous decision to rescind its operating licence. The order was the first of its kind for the agency that issued it and for any Philippine media outlet. So, the fight is far from over, and your support is essential for us to be able to continue our work in support of Maria Ressa and her colleagues, whose only crime has been to do their jobs as reporters.