Philippine court blocks government’s effort to close news outlet that criticized former president

MANILA, Philippines (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 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 Ressa and Rappler faced under Duterte, was made “with grave abuse of discretion, contravening established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the constitution."

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

But 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.