{"id":76050,"date":"2026-01-22T12:28:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/22\/frenchie-mae-cumpio-philippine-journalist-found-guilty"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:28:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:28:28","slug":"filipino-journalist-frenchie-cumpio-found-guilty-of-terror-financing-in-verdict-rights-groups-call-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76050","title":{"rendered":"Filipino journalist Frenchie Cumpio found guilty of terror financing in verdict rights groups call \u2018absurd\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reporters Without Borders said the ruling against the 26-year-old journalist showed a \u2018blatant disregard for press freedom\u2019 in the Southeast Asian nation<\/p>\n<p>A young Filipino journalist who spent nearly six years in a crowded provincial prison was found guilty of terror financing on Thursday, in a case rights groups and a UN rapporteur labelled a \u201ctravesty of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Community journalist and radio broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/jan\/21\/frenchie-mae-cumpio-filipino-journalist-jailed-six-years-without-trial-court-verdict-due\">Frenchie Cumpio,<\/a> 26, and former roommate Marielle Domequil broke down in tears and hugged each other as the guilty verdict was read and they were sentenced to 12-18 years in prison by judge Georgina Uy Perez of the Tacloban regional court.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/22\/frenchie-mae-cumpio-philippine-journalist-found-guilty\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reporters Without Borders said the ruling against the 26-year-old journalist showed a \u2018blatant disregard for press freedom\u2019 in the Southeast Asian nationA young Filipino journalist who spent nearly six years in a crowded provincial prison was found gui&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,55,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-philippines","category-press-freedom"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76051,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76050\/revisions\/76051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}