Nikka G. Valenzuela

Germany-based Filipino journalist interested in stories about social justice and the environment. Stories published on Deutsche Welle and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. 

LGBT rally: Cops commandeer activists’ vans

A group of activists who marked LGBT Pride Month with a rally in Manila on Friday was arrested by the police in a way rarely seen in crowd-control operations. The protesters proceeded from Morayta to Mendiola, the rally site outside Malacañang, in two vans. Upon their arrest, some of them were ordered to return to their vehicles. Police officers then forced their drivers out and took over the vans, the protesters told the Inquirer.

Rappler CEO convicted of cyberlibel but vows: ‘We will fight‘

Rappler CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. were convicted on Monday of cyberlibel in a landmark case that the former said was a “cautionary tale” to make the press afraid. “I began as a reporter in 1986 and I have worked [in] so many countries around the world. I’ve been shot at and threatened, but never this kind of death by a thousand cuts,’’ Ressa told members of the media after the promulgation.