There are a lot of other things that happen in the Philippines that might surprise you. Once you understand the general government climate, you would never be surprised by anything else. For example, airport officials have been caught in the past placing bullets in peoples suitcases so that they cannot pass security, and requesting a very large fee to ignore the issue. These are authority figures out to get money from little people.

I like to call this "the official's tax" and it comes with any significant money transfer in the Philippines. Everyone needs their cut or you don't get what you want. People come up with creative ways of applying this tax

Out of necessity or nah?

Why not? I haven't seen anyone portraying the country as a state that respects the rule of law lately.

This 100%. I originally thought this was the US DOJ. When I saw it was PH, I said forget it. Duerte runs a junta. PH history is full of judicial malpractice.

I’m from PH and we don’t feel we were run by a Junta or dictator as what you westeners like. We can criticize him online, publicly and go on with our lives. Duterte has several critics on newspaper, radio, online etc. Ressa broke the law and does not mean she’s excempted from it.

It's much easier to be an autocrat if people support you and don't realize what you are doing.

Happened to us in Peru with Fujimori [1]. Elected a guy that promised to be tough on crime and actually get things done. He did lots of things (tackled terrorism, hyperinflation, etc.), but bit by bit he started gaining more power. Closed congress, installed judges to the supreme court, changed constitution (he actually called for a referendum, and we all voted for it!)

A lot of people criticized him, and he was not jailing them but letting them be. Only if you were a major figure (opposition, some investigative newspapers), did he really go against you.

At the end, he started torturing people, embezzled a few billion dollars, committed massive election fraud, and was somewhat miraculously kicked and jailed after 11 years.

I don't want to draw the parallel too far, but believe me, the difference between autocracy and democracy is not black and white, and the way you play the game, is you try to do the "boil frogs in water" trick, but with people instead of frogs.

(Also, I thought that Ressa broke a law written AFTER she broke it? Which is in most places of the world completely unconstitutional..)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori

It could be a continuous crime, online publication crime are continuous in French law.

Does that mean that failure to take down an article is criminal if posting that article would now be criminal?

No idea, but the period of prescription starts when a libelous/harassing item is taken down.

I learned this because of a recent scandal where numerous, well connected, French journalists were operating coordinated 4chan-like online raids and IRL harassment on colleagues they didn't like.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligue_du_LOL — Literally the "League of LOL"

I guess so, and the fine would be proportional to how long it has been illegal.

It is a continuous crime. Ressa and her company were requested to take down the libelous article but they didn't heed it.