Philippine court allows Rappler to keep operating
A Philippine news site co-founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa can continue operating after a court overturned a shutdown order, according to the ruling released on Friday, in the latest legal victory for the media outfit. Ressa and Rappler have been fighting multiple court cases filed during former president Rodrigo Duterte's administration. Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, was a vocal critic of 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 decision, issued on July 23 but only released to the media on Friday, reversed a previous ruling by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that had ordered the shutdown of Rappler. The SEC order had been a "grave abuse of discretion" and contravened "established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the Constitution", the court said. The SEC shutdown order was issued on June 28, 2022, days before Duterte left office. It revoked Rappler's "certificate of incorporation" for violating constitutional and statutory restrictions on foreign ownership in mass media. Rappler has continued operating as it appealed the SEC order. Under the constitution, investment in media is reserved for Filipinos or Filipino-controlled entities. The case sprang from the 2015 investment from the US-based Omidyar Network, which was established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Omidyar later transferred its investment in Rappler to the site's local managers to stave off efforts by Duterte to shut it down. (AFP)