(CNN) Last September, I met Maria Ressa, founder and CEO of the Filipino news site Rappler.com, in a hotel in Washington, DC. We discussed preparations for an award that the Committee to Protect Journalists, for which I manage the Asia program, would give her in November. With the government readying tax evasion charges against Rappler and with potential criminal liability against Ressa, would she be allowed to exit the country again if she returned home before the award? We must put pressure on governments across Asia, where press freedom is in retreat. In the case of the tax evasion charges last year, Rappler was hauled up over a common investment scheme used to bring foreign capital into the country, a lawyer involved in the case told me.

Source: CNN February 13, 2019 22:13 UTC