[3][4]: 36 The case centered on an article published on Rappler by Reynaldo Santos Jr. which accused the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines of accepting favors from Filipino-Chinese businessman Wilfredo Keng.

[5] Santos, Ressa, and others were charged with cyberlibel retrospectively, as the article was originally published four months before the Cybercrime Prevention Act came into effect.

[9] The court ruled that Ressa "did not offer a scintilla of proof that they verified the imputations of various crimes in the disputed article ... [Rappler] just simply published them as news in their online publication in reckless disregard of whether they are false or not.

[21] On December 20, 2017, Keng filed a complaint-affidavit before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to charge Santos, Jr. and Ressa, along with Rappler's treasurer James Bitanga and six others, with cyberlibel.

[22][23] The NBI's Cybercrime Department argued that because of a legal gray area regarding the theory of "continuous publication",[note 1] it can be assumed that Keng saw the article in question after the passing of the law.

The DOJ reasoned that on February 19, 2014, the article was changed to correct a misspelling of the word "evasion",[note 2][24] which can be considered as re-publication according to the department.

[31] Aside from People v. Santos, et al., Rappler also faced a number of lawsuits filed by various government agencies, including on the irregularities on its ownership as well as allegations of tax evasion.

[32][33] Ressa on multiple occasions had connected President Rodrigo Duterte to the legal cases filed the executive branch against Rappler.

[...] They just simply published them as news in their online publication in reckless disregard of whether they are false or not";[4]: 34  it also said that Ressa committed a "clever ruse" by not calling herself an editor-in-chief, but rather an executive editor, to avoid libel liability;[4]: 25  this was criticized by several media outlets, as the position is common.

L-57738) as precedent, which states that defendants "owe it to themselves" to testify if they are "in the best position to refute [the] charges" as there may be no other way to affect "the complete destruction of the prosecution's prima facie case".

[9] When the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, she filed a motion for reconsideration arguing that the appellate court "erred in holding that the offense of cyberlibel against appellants has not prescribed and that the period of prescription should be 15 years and not one year," considering that the Revised Penal Code already provides a one-year prescriptive period for "libel and other offenses".

[52] In an October 2022 decision, the court denied the motion due to a lack of merit, affirming the conviction and increasing the potential prison sentence accompanying it.

The country's Ant-Cybercrime Law raises serious concerns that it limits the ability of journalists to expose, document and address issues of important public interest, thereby violating the right to receive and impart information," Khan's brief alleged.

The International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute was also permitted to submit its legal opinion “by way of special appearance” through Atty.

[56][57] Keng stated that by republishing the article, "[Ressa] feloniously communicated the malicious imputations against me not only to her 350,000 Twitter followers, but to anyone who has access to the internet.

[59] The case was withdrawn by Keng on June 1, 2021, to "dedicate time and resources to support ongoing efforts to battle the pandemic".

[70] The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) declared that the verdict "basically kills freedom of speech and of the press" and has led to a "dark day ... for all Filipinos.

[73] The European External Action Service commented that the verdict "raises serious doubts over the respect for freedom of expression as well as for the rule of law in the Philippines.

[79][80] Roque also stated that Duterte's appointment of Keng's daughter as a member of the Philippine Commission on Women on September 19, 2019, did not affect the integrity of the verdict against Ressa.