Philippines authorities have again ordered the shutdown of an investigative news site founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maria Ressa.
The news site, Rappler, is one of the few Philippines media outlets critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s government. The regulator’s ruling came just before President Duterte leaves office, as he hands over power to his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is said to be his ally, after he won the election in May 2022.
But Rappler said it wouldn’t be shutting down and would challenge the order in court. “We will continue to work and to do business as usual,” Ms. Ressa told reporters on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, adding that “We will follow the legal process and continue to stand up for our rights. We will hold the line”. She said the ruling came after “highly irregular” proceedings, and the site couldn’t “count on rule of law” anymore.
Reason for the License Revocation
The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted in a statement that a decision to revoke the company’s licence to operate received support following an appeal because both the outfit (SEC) and the courts concluded that Rappler’s funding model was unconstitutional.
The regulator first issued an order against Rappler in 2018, invalidating the news organisation’s credentials because it said the company sold control of itself to a foreign entity in breach of foreign ownership restrictions in Philippines media.
Rappler has been fighting the ruling ever since, as it denied that its US investor funding breaks the law. In 2015, Rappler received funding from the Omiydar network, which is a philanthropic investment company set up by Pierre Omiydar, the billionaire founder of eBay, but denied that it conceded foreign control. Three years later, it donated the investment to Filipino, staff of Rappler to prove it had no controlling stake in the business.
Ms. Ressa on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, intimated that the SEC’s ruling is the latest blow in a six-year campaign from authorities in response to Rappler’s hard-hitting reporting. She said, “We have been harassed, this is intimidation, these are political tactics and we refuse to succumb to them”.
The Angle of Rappler’s Reporting
Rappler published extensively on President Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, as well as taking a critical look at issues of misogyny, human rights violations and corruption. Ms. Ressa, who co-founded the site in 2012, faced at least, seven criminal and civil cases which she said are politically challenged. Reports said she is appealing her conviction in 2020 for libel, a case seen as a test of Philippine press freedom.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year (2021), along with a Russian journalist, for her journalistic work with Rappler. She was commended for using freedom of expression to “expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines”.
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