An award-winning journalist who heads up an online news site that has been critical of President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested today.
Maria Ressa was taken into custody at her Rappler office in Manila over a libel complaint described as 'politically motivated'.
Duterte has openly lambasted journalists who write unfavourable stories about him, including his anti-drug campaign that has left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.
The complaint from a businessman was condemned by Amnesty International as 'brazenly politically motivated'.
Duterte's government said the arrest was a normal step in response to the complaint.
Maria Ressa, head of online news platform Rappler, leaves the office after being served an arrest warrant today in Pasig City, Manila
Duterte has branded news sites such as Rappler which have been critical of his high-profile war on drug traffickers as 'fake news'. Pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited the Philippines last November
Rappler Inc., the news site which Ressa heads, said National Bureau of Investigation agents served the warrant late this afternoon, making it difficult for Ressa to apply for bail, and escorted her from the office to NBI headquarters.
Ressa and a former Rappler researcher, Reynaldo Santos Jr., were indicted recently, the Department of Justice said.
Speaking to reporters after her arrest, the veteran journalist, who is now CEO and executive editor, said she was 'shocked that the rule of law has been broken to a point that I can't see it'.
Footage streamed on Facebook showed plain-clothes party officials speaking with Ressa, while several of the site's journalists live-tweeted what was happening.
She said in a statement: 'We are not intimidated. No amount of legal cases, black propaganda, and lies can silence Filipino journalists who continue to hold the line,.
'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.'
Maria Ressa, CEO and executive editor of Rappler, was arrested today at the news site's HQ today by Filipino government agents
Ressa showed her arrest warrant to the cameras as a pack of reporters covered her detention over a libel complaint
Rappler said 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.
The article included
