The New York Times
By Sui-Lee Wee
June 29, 2022
Maria Ressa, the co-founder of the independent news organization, said she would appeal the decision, calling it “harassment and intimidation.”
Rappler offices in Pasig City, suburban Manila, on Wednesday.Credit...Maria Tan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Philippine government has again ordered that Rappler, the news website co-founded by Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, be shut down for violating foreign ownership rules, the latest blow against press freedom in the country.
Rappler has angered President Rodrigo Duterte for investigating his drug war, and the government has filed seven criminal cases against Ms. Ressa, relating to tax evasion, violation of foreign ownership rules and cyber libel.
In his 2017 State of the Nation speech, Mr. Duterte singled out the news organization, saying it was “fully owned” by Americans, a charge that Rappler has denied. (The Constitution prohibits foreign entities from owning domestic media organizations in the Philippines.)
Tuesday’s announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission to revoke Rappler’s operating license upholds an earlier move by the agency. In 2018 the S.E.C. said that an investment by Omidyar Network, owned by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, violated the restrictions on foreign ownership of domestic media.
Rappler has argued that Omidyar’s investment was not the same as owning shares, did not violate the law and did not give Omidyar Network control of its operations. Rappler has appealed its case multiple times before the Court of Appeals and the S.E.C. but lost every time. It has continued to publish while its legal battles have dragged on.
Ms. Ressa said the Tuesday decision “effectively confirmed the shutdown of Rappler.” She had announced the S.E.C. decision earlier in a speech at the International Media Conference hosted by Hawaii’s East-West Center.
In an interview from a hotel in Honolulu, Ms. Ressa said her organization would continue to appeal the decision “because the proceedings were highly irregular.”
“This is illegal,” Ms. Ressa said. “For me, this is harassment and intimidation. We’ll continue doing our jobs. In fact, our end goal is to keep swatting away at that Damocles sword.”
Maria Ressa, one of Rappler’s founders, at her desk in the office in 2018. Jes Aznar for The New York Times
Francis Lim, a lawyer representing Rappler, said the S.E.C., as an administrative agency, could not execute the decision without court approval. He said he planned to file a motion to the Court of Appeals to reconsider. If that fails, they could take the case to the Supreme Court.
“It’s not the end of the world for us,” Mr. Lim told reporters, adding that there was still a “very long process” to go.
Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, called the case a “government vendetta” against Ms. Ressa and Rappler. “The bottom line is this is an effort to shut up Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, and shut down Rappler, by hook or by crook,” Mr. Robertson said.
The order came two days before Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the ousted dictator, is scheduled to be inaugurated as president. It was the latest example of the pressures facing the nation’s news media. Last week, the government blocked two Philippine news websites, saying they supported Communist-terrorist organizations.
On Monday, Mr. Duterte said he had used his presidential powers in 2020 to shut down ABS-CBN, a major broadcast network that has reported on the president’s drug war and his track record.
Rappler, which has won multiple awards, is well known for its work on countering disinformation and its investigation into Mr. Duterte’s drug war. It is particularly popular among young Filipinos. Last year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Ms. Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression.”
Ms. Ressa said the company has had to increase security for its staff after internet users recently spread a false claim that Rappler was the least trusted news organization in the Philippines and after a pro-government Facebook account published Rappler’s address.
“When the rule of law is bent so much that it’s broken,” she said, “you have to be ready for anything.”
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times. She was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. @suilee