Our fight to #FreeFrenchieMaeCumpio
Free Press Unlimited together with a coalition of press freedom organisations, composed of AlterMidya, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), visited jailed journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio during a joint mission aimed at asking authorities to end her more than five-year detention.
The group had submitted an official request to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on 5 May 2025, seeking permission to meet with Cumpio and express solidarity amid growing concern over her prolonged detention. The delegation made the request with the backing of the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), a global alliance of 51 states committed to defending press freedom, and received the response only a few days before the planned visit and was ultimately denied entry to the detention facility.
Arrested in February 2020, Frenchie Mae Cumpio faces bogus charges of “terrorism financing” and “illegal possession of firearms and explosives”, offences that could carry a sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Her testimony began in November 2024, nearly five years after her arrest, and is being closely monitored by the #FreeFrenchieMaeCumpio coalition.
Akriti Saraswat, Safety and Gender Expert, Free Press Unlimited: “We're looking at a 26-year-old woman stripped of her basic rights- due legal process, community, healthcare, privacy, and information- simply for speaking truth to power. She’s been hit from all directions. You only attack journalists when truth is your enemy, and that's what happened to Frenchie. This isn't just an attack on her; it's an attack on every Filipino and everyone who believes in democracy. We urge President Marcos Jr. and the Secretary of Justice to release her without delay, drop all charges, and right this wrong without further delay. We cannot allow her to spend even one more day behind bars.”
During the hearings, the defence denounced serious violations of her fundamental rights, particularly during the raid that led to her arrest, as well as major inconsistencies in witness testimonies. The military claims to have found a firearm and a grenade in her home, but available evidence suggests these items may have been planted.
Before her arrest, Frenchie Mae Cumpio regularly reported on abuses committed by the military and police in Eastern Visayas through a programme she hosted on local radio station Aksyon Radyo-Tacloban DYVL. She was also the director of Eastern Vista, a news website that is part of the Altermidya network of independent media outlets dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalised communities in the Philippines.
In May, Frenchie Mae Cumpio's case was included in the 2025 world's '10 Most Urgent' list, according to One Free Press Coalition. The list brings to light and emphasizes ten cases of those who are currently detained for actively pursuing their duty as fellow journalists.
