Friday, March 29

The Philippines orders the closure of ‘Rappler’, the news portal of Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa


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On his last day at the helm Philippineswhich turns out to be today, Rodrigo Duterte He is still determined to destroy his greatest political enemy: a group of journalists. The country’s authorities have confirmed the closure order imposed on ‘Rappler’, founded and directed by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa. This new measure is part of a repeated persecution against one of the few independent media outlets and, therefore, critical of government action.

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission has ratified this morning through an official statement its decision to revoke the company’s operating license, whose appeal has been dismissed by the regulatory body and the courts. The origin of the case, which began in 2018, lies in the sale three years before of part of the ‘Rappler’ shareholding to OmidyarNetworka philanthropic investment company promoted by Pierre Omydar, billionaire founder of eBay. The operation would have violated the law restricting foreign ownership of media, something that Ressa denies, alleging that he did not give up executive control.

“We are being harassed, this is a political intimidation tactic and we refuse to succumb to it”, the Philippine journalist stated in a telematic press conference after learning of the ruling, which she described as “highly irregular.” “We will continue to work, carrying out our activity normally, advancing the judicial process and fighting for our rights,” she has sentenced.

Said investigation is one of the seven that Ressa faces – three others have already been dismissed – which can carry six years in prison and consider a retaliation of the authorities before the informative activity of ‘Rappler’. This made him worthy last year of the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the Russian journalist Dimitri Muratov, founder of the independent newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’. The jury recognized his use of freedom of expression to “expose the abuses of power, the use of violence and the increasing authoritarianism of his country of origin, the Philippines.”

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Praises that Duterte does not share, of course. He has repeatedly branded ‘Rappler’ – who denounced, among other things, the thousands of extrajudicial executions caused by his “war on drugs” – as “fake news portal”. The still president will be replaced tomorrow by Ferdinand Marcos Junior, popularly known as Bongbong, the clear winner in the elections held last May despite being the son of the dictator of the same name, who between 1965 and 1986 made the country a kleptocracy at his service. .

‘Bad for democracy’

In an exclusive interview granted to ABC from the ‘Rappler’ newsroom in Manila after the elections, Ressa lamented the government’s harassment. «I have been a journalist for 36 years but, between 2019 and 2021, in less than two years, they have tried to arrest me ten times and I have been released on bail on all those occasions (…). Together with an old colleague, I was found guilty of “cyber libel” in 2020. That’s ridiculous because that crime didn’t exist when we published that story.”

Ressa also pointed out how the erosion of press freedom has been a fundamental factor in the rewriting of history that allowed the election of Bongbong Marcos. “The Nobel was a moment of vindication. It’s been six very hard years [bajo la presidencia de Duterte]. The world hasn’t gotten better for journalists, it’s gotten worse. And, if it’s bad for journalists, it’s bad for democracy. (…) ‘Rappler’ is going to continue doing his job, which is to hold power accountable. But it’s getting harder and harder.” A situation that threatens to get even worse with the coming to power of Marcos: for the Filipinos and their press, Duterte’s last day is just another day.

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