“It’s a vindication,” Rappler said in a statement. File
| Photo Credit: AP

A Philippine appeals court reversed a regulator’s 2018 order to shut down a prominent news outlet in a decision made public Friday, marking a legal victory for journalists who angered former President Rodrigo Duterte by reporting critically on his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and alarming human rights record.

The Court of Appeals ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission to restore the certificates of incorporation of Rappler, an online news outfit founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Maria Ressa, in a decision issued July 23.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the SEC will appeal the ruling.

“It’s a vindication,” Rappler said in a statement. “It’s a fact that the Duterte government used the SEC order to unleash its power to further harass us, our employees, our stakeholders and our communities.”

Rappler said it’s still facing two other legal cases: a cyber-libel conviction that Ms. Ressa is appealing to the Supreme Court and a case pending in another Philippine court in which the outlet is accused of violating the “Anti-Dummy Law,” which prohibits Philippines nationals from acting as proxies for noncitizens to evade legal requirements.

Rappler has continued to operate during its legal fight, despite the closure order.

Rappler was accused of violating a constitutional ban on foreign investments in local media agencies when it received funds through financial papers called Philippine depository receipts in 2015 from the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic organization backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The government alleged that the funding gave Omidyar some control over Rappler.

Rappler denied Omidyar wielded any control over it through the financial receipts, which Omidyar later donated to the online outfit’s employees.

The court ruled that the 2018 shutdown order, one of several legal issues that Ms. Ressa and Rappler faced under Mr. Duterte, was made “with grave abuse of discretion, contravening established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the constitution.”

Mr. Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ms. Ressa and Rappler, which included tax lawsuits, were not a press freedom issue but part of normal judicial procedures.

But Mr. Duterte was known for openly lambasting journalists and news agencies that critically reported about his deadly campaign against illegal drugs, including the country’s largest TV network, ABS-CNS. ABS-CNS was shut down in 2020 after Duterte-allied lawmakers refused to renew its license.

The Philippines has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world.

In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their associates gunned down 58 people, including 32 media workers, in a brazen attack in southern Maguindanao province. It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.

While the mass killing was later linked to a violent electoral rivalry, it also showcased the threats faced by journalists in the Philippines. A surfeit of unlicensed guns and private armies controlled by powerful clans, and a lack of law enforcement in rural areas are among the security concerns journalists face in the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian nation.

Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO gestures as she talks to reporters after being acquitted by the Pasig Regional Trial Court over a tax evasion case in Pasig City, Philippines, on Sept. 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

A court has ruled that the Philippine news site Rappler can continue operating, according to a copy of the decision released to the media on Friday (August 9, 2024), in the latest legal victory for the media outfit.

The Court of Appeals overturned a previous ruling by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that had effectively ordered the shutdown of the company co-founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa.

Ms. Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, was a vocal critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte and the deadly drug war he launched in 2016.

That triggered what media advocates say was a grinding series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks against her and Rappler.

The Court of Appeals issued its ruling on July 23 that “reversed and set aside” the SEC decision on the grounds that its order had been a “grave abuse of discretion”.

It contravened “established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the Constitution”, the court said.

The SEC shutdown order was issued on June 29, 2022, the day before Mr. Duterte left office.

Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO, gestures as she talks to reporters after being acquitted by the Pasig Regional Trial Court over a tax evasion case in Pasig city, Philippines.
| Photo Credit: AP

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa was acquitted of a final tax evasion charge on September 12 though she still faces two remaining legal cases she believes the former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte used to muzzle her critical reporting.

Ms. Ressa and her online news organisation Rappler had faced five tax evasion charges but a court acquitted her of four of the charges in January. A different court heard the fifth charge and acquitted her Tuesday.

“Facts wins, truth wins, justice wins,” she told reporters outside the courthouse.

Ms. Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the 2021 Nobel for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression by fighting for the survival of their news organisations and defying government efforts to shut them.

She had said the charges against her were politically motivated as Rappler was critical of Mr. Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs that left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead. The International Criminal Court is investigating the crackdown as a possible crime against humanity.

Rappler also criticised Mr. Duterte’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic including prolonged lockdowns that deepened poverty, caused one of the country’s worst recessions and sparked allegations of corruption in government medical purchases.

Ms. Ressa also said there appeared to be a “lifting of fear” under the Philippines’ new leader — Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is the namesake son of the dictator overthrown in the army-backed “people power” uprising in 1986.

Ms. Ressa is still appealing to the Supreme Court against an online libel conviction, while Rappler is challenging a closure order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“You’ve got to have faith,” Ms. Ressa said. “The acquittal now strengthens our resolve to continue with the justice system, to submit ourselves to the court despite the political harassment, despite the attacks on press freedom. It shows that the court system works and we hope to see the remaining charges dismissed.”

Manila, Philippines:

Philippines Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and her news site Rappler were acquitted of tax fraud by a trial court on Tuesday, in another legal victory for the embattled journalist.

Ressa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 alongside a Russian journalist, is head of Rappler, which earned a reputation for its intense scrutiny of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly war on drugs.

After the verdict was announced, Ressa told reporters she felt “good” about the court’s decision.

Ressa’s acquittal was expected after she was cleared of similar tax charges nine months ago.

Those charges stem from a 2018 government indictment that accuses Ressa and Rappler of dodging tax payments after failing to declare proceeds of a 2015 sale of depositary receipts to foreign investors.

Ressa, 59, is currently on bail and was convicted in 2020 for cyber libel in one of several cases against the website filed by government agencies. She maintained those cases were politically motivated.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has been in office for 14 months, has said he would not interfere in the court cases against Rappler.

Rappler is still operating unhindered pending its appeal against a closure order from the securities regulator.

The Philippines is ranked 132 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, describing its media as “extremely vibrant despite the government’s targeted attacks and constant harassment” against journalists that are “too critical”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)