A Cross River State Magistrates’ Court sitting in Calabar and presided over by Rita Marshall, on Tuesday, discharged and acquitted two journalists arraigned for misconduct during the #RevolutionNow protest held on August 5, 2019.

The journalists, Jonathan Ugbal and Jeremiah Archibong, who serve as the News Editor and Managing Editor, respectively, of the Cross RiverWatch, an online news portal, were charged with conspiracy, unlawful assembly and conduct likely to cause a breach of the public peace.

They were arraigned on August 7, 2019, and after a long trial, the defence counsel, Kehole Enya, filed a no-case-to-answer application, which was adopted on July 15, 2020, and upheld by the court on Tuesday.

Marshall held that the prosecution had “woefully and helplessly” failed to establish a prima facie case against the defendants to warrant them to enter a defence and subsequently discharged and acquitted the two journalists.

In his reaction to the ruling, Enya said, “Today’s ruling is victory for justice and for our democracy. If our democracy must thrive, then we must fight tyranny till the end. This victory today supports the course of justice.”

Archibong, said it was “victory of truth over lies, light over darkness and press freedom over repression.”