麻豆影视

Skip to main content

Ressa says Philippine courts to decide Rappler news site closure order

A staff member of Rappler monitors as Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa talks during a zoom meeting as seen inside their office in Pasig city, Philippines, June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) A staff member of Rappler monitors as Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa talks during a zoom meeting as seen inside their office in Pasig city, Philippines, June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Share
MANILA, Philippines -

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa said her Rappler news website was operating 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥 Wednesday and would let Philippine courts decide on a government order to close the outlet critical of the outgoing Duterte administration and its deadly drug crackdown.

The Philippines鈥 Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday affirmed its revocation of Rappler鈥檚 license over a breach of the ban on foreign ownership and control of media outlets.

The case is one of several against Ressa and Rappler seen as part of an assault on press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte, who leaves office Thursday and will be succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the namesake son of the late dictator.

Ressa revealed the shutdown order against Rappler while speaking Tuesday at the East-West Center in Honolulu. 鈥淧art of the reason I didn鈥檛 have much sleep last night is because we essentially got a shutdown order,鈥 Ressa told the audience.

She told reporters later in a Zoom interview that Rappler would continue to stand up for its rights. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e heard me state repeatedly over the last six years that we have been harassed. This is intimidation. These are political tactics. We refuse to succumb to them," Ressa said.

Rappler鈥檚 attorney, Francis Lim, said the website had legal remedies available to question the SEC's administrative decision in the courts. "And we are confident that at the end of the day we shall prevail,鈥 Lim said Wednesday in Manila.

鈥淩appler is facing government retaliation for its fearless reporting about rights abuses in the 鈥榙rug war,' Duterte and Marcos鈥 use of disinformation on social media, and a wide variety of rights abusing actions over the past six years," Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. 鈥淭his is an effort to shut up Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, and shut down Rappler, by hook or by crook.鈥

Ressa and Russian Dmitry Muratov last year became the first working journalists in more than 80 years to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Muratov's newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, suspended operations in March after pressure from Russian authorities. It was the last major independent media outlet critical of President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 government left in Russia after others either closed or were blocked following Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine in February.

Ressa co-founded Rappler in 2012. After Duterte took office in 2016, it increasingly began reporting on the nighttime police raids that left hundreds and then thousands of mostly poor, petty drug suspects dead in overwhelmed morgues. Police said they were acting in self-defense when officers gunned down alleged drug dealers. Few suspects were questioned in what human rights activists soon described as extrajudicial executions.

Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ressa and Rappler were not a press freedom issue but part of normal judicial procedures arising from their alleged violations of the law.

However, Duterte has openly lambasted journalists and news sites who report critically about him, including the country鈥檚 largest TV network, ABS-CBN, which was shut down in 2020 after lawmakers refused to renew its 25-year license.

As Rappler鈥檚 president and CEO, Ressa faces several criminal complaints over the website's news operations. She was convicted of libel in 2020 and sentenced to six years in prison but has remained free on bail while the case is on appeal.

___

AP journalists Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu and Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this report.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Childhood sleep issues may raise suicide risk, study finds

If your child sometimes has trouble sleeping, it may be easy to chalk it up to a phase they will grow out of one day. But a new study suggests possible serious consequences for this line of thought 鈥 such as a higher risk for suicidal ideation or attempts when they are older.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.