“We’re doing our job. I think this shouldn’t be posted anywhere else, because that’s basically our weapon — our identity. Do you get that?” the officer said. “Can you stop doing what you’re doing now? Is it okay? Tell this to your colleagues. Because, definitely, if we see our faces on the Net, you’ll be sorry. You’ve been warned. We’ll go after you.”<doc-sep>The editor of a news site that has been critical of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested for libel, extending a crackdown on critics that rights groups say is aimed at muzzling his political opponents. Maria Ressa, chief executive officer of Rappler Inc., was taken into custody by plainclothes police officers at the digital media organization’s offices Wednesday. Rappler staff recorded the arrest and distributed the footage on social media. The veteran editor, who spent the night in detention, posted bail of 100,000 pesos ($1,915) Thursday morning and said Rappler is the target of harassment by law enforcement acting on behalf of Mr. Duterte’s administration. “The message is clear. It’s an abuse of power, it’s a weaponization of the law. If they wanted to scare me, this isn’t the way to scare me,” she said. The president, who is popular in the Southeast Asian country for his tough-talking leadership, has dismissed his critics as a waste of his time. His spokesman says the government doesn’t target opponents and is committed to prosecuting anyone who breaks the law. “The case against Maria Ressa is not based on any violation of press freedom,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a local broadcaster after the arrest. “She committed a crime, and the court finds probable cause—that’s why she is now being charged,” he said. Rights organizations say press freedoms are under attack in the Philippines and more broadly in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, two Reuters reporters have been sentenced to seven years in jail for reporting on the military’s bloody campaign against the Rohingya minority. In Thailand and Vietnam, officials have intensified crackdowns on critical media. The Philippines Department of Justice last week indicted Ms. Ressa, Rappler and a researcher who worked for the company for “cyber-libel,” a crime punishable by a prison sentence of up to 12 years. The indictment alleges that they published a libelous article in 2012 about a Filipino businessman. In 2017, businessman Wilfredo D. Keng filed a complaint about the story, which he said inaccurately linked him to the illegal drug trade. Mr. Keng couldn’t be reached to comment. Ms. Ressa and Rappler also face separate charges filed in November for tax evasion. A year ago, the company’s certificate of incorporation was withdrawn for allegedly violating laws on foreign ownership of media, though the company has continued to operate. Among Rappler’s investors was Omidyar Network, created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, which says it had funded the company through a special investment instrument but didn’t own a stake, and last February it donated that investment to Rappler’s managers, including Ms. Ressa. Rappler and Ms. Ressa deny wrongdoing and say all of the allegations are politically motivated and aimed at silencing a news outlet that has won awards for its critical coverage of the Duterte administration, which took office in 2016. Ms. Ressa posted 60,000 Philippine pesos (US$1,150) bail on the tax-evasion charges. Rappler says the article prompting the cyber-libel charge was published months before the relevant law took effect. The charge comes four years after the expiration of a yearlong window available for victims of libel to file a complaint, it says. The actions against Rappler have met with condemnation from a range of media and human-rights groups. The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, called in December for the tax-evasion charges to be dropped out of concern that they “constitute an attempt to silence the news outlet’s independent reporting.” The Philippines fell six places last year in an annual ranking of press freedom, to 133rd, according to Reporters Without Borders. The nation is routinely named one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. “In a country where justice takes years to obtain, we see the charges against her being railroaded and the law being used to relentlessly intimidate and harass journalists for doing their jobs as truth-tellers,” Butch Olano, Amnesty International Philippines director, said in a statement. Write to Jake Maxwell Watts at jake.watts@wsj.com<doc-sep>In a statement, Rappler promised to press on with its reporting. “This is another of several attempts to intimidate us, it will not succeed, as past attempts have shown. Maria Ressa and Rappler will continue to do our jobs as journalists. We will continue to tell the truth and report what we see and hear.”<doc-sep>Normally the United States would be at the forefront of global condemnation of Duterte’s persecution of Ressa and other Filipino journalists. But President Trump is apparently an admirer of Duterte, with whom he claims to have “a great relationship.” He may, in fact, find it pleasing to know that his Philippines counterpart has referred to Rappler as a “fake news outlet," while Duterte’s supporters set up real false news sites that Facebook blocked. In a recent interview in the Oval Office, Trump was asked if he knew the impact his attacks on the media are having on press freedom around the world. He seemed to exult in the use of the label: “’I do notice that people are declaring more and more fake news, where they go, ‘Fake news!’”<doc-sep>
Maria Ressa, an award-winning journalist for a Philippine news site who has been critical of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration, was arrested Wednesday. Ressa was escorted from the Rappler office to the headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation after agents served a warrant late Wednesday. She was arrested over a libel complaint from a businessman. Rappler, Ressa's employer, alleged that the businessman had been linked to illegal drugs and human trafficking, and a car registered in his name had been used by the country's chief justice. ​​​​​​PHILIPPINES' DUTERTE BLASTS STATE AUDITORS, SAYS HE WANTS THEM KIDNAPPED, TORTURED "We are not intimidated. No amount of legal cases, black propaganda, and lies can silence Filipino journalists who continue to hold the line," Ressa said in a statement. "These legal acrobatics show how far the government will go to silence journalists, including the pettiness of forcing me to spend the night in jail." PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT JOKES ABOUT SEX ASSAULT DURING SPEECH The businessman filed the libel complaint five years after the article appeared in 2012, and the law under which Ressa was charged by the government, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, did not go into effect until months after the article's publication, according to Rappler. Duterte, who has waged an anti-drug campaign that has left thousands dead, has openly criticized journalists who have covered him in an unfavorable manner. Amnesty International Philippines said Ressa's arrest was based on a "trumped-up libel charge." CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP "This is brazenly politically motivated, and consistent with the authorities' threats and repeated targeting of Ressa and her team," it said. The Associated Press contributed to this article.