Skip to main content Currently Reading No one in the Philippines would air a documentary about press freedom, so 'Frontline' is doing it itself Elahe Izadi, The Washington Post March 2, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Maria Ressa in the "Frontline" documentary "A Thousand Cuts."Frontline/PBS On the evening before Valentine's Day in 2019, journalist Maria Ressa was arrested by the Philippine government and charged with "cyber-libel."At issue was a seven-year-old article that her news website, Rappler, had published before such a crime as cyber-libel existed in the country's legal code. Ressa is now appealing a six-year prison sentence over the article, which concerned a businessman's alleged ties to a top judge and illegal drugs. Her arrest and the legal campaign against her and Rappler is captured in "A Thousand Cuts," a chilling new documentary from "Frontline" that looks behind the scenes at the repression of journalism and growing disinformation under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist strongman.