Filipino American journalist, Maria Ressa, has been found guilty of cyberlibel, and she could spend up to 6 years in prison.

Ressa grew up in the US, and she studied at an American university. She was honored as Time¢¥s 2018 Person of the Year for her reporting work. She founded a news site, which has been very critical of the Philippines president¢¥s brutal war on drugs.

Ressa and another reporter were charged with violating a new libel law in an article that linked a high-profile businessman to a murder, trafficking, and drug smuggling. However, the law was created after the article was published. Human rights groups and reporting organizations have condemned the charges, and they called them an attack on the free press.

Difficult words: cyberlibel (a published false statement on the Internet that damages a person¢¥s reputation), libel (a false statement that damages a person¢¥s reputation), traffic (to send illegal things or people to other places), condemn (to criticize strongly).