Rappler going to Supreme Court

MANILA, Philippines — Online news outfit Rappler is taking its battle for survival to the Supreme Court (SC).

Journalist and Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa yesterday vowed to fight all the way to the SC the decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revoke the company’s license.

In an interview with the ABS-CBN News Channel, Ressa maintained that Rappler has not given any form of control to foreigners, as declared by the SEC in its ruling.

“They are not veto powers. That is the interpretation of this one which we are going to challenge all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” Ressa said.

She explained that the questioned provision in the Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) issued to Omidyar Network (ON) of eBay founder and entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar was simply a clause allowing them to leave if they disagree with a corporate decision of the company.

“They can disagree but they cannot change what (we) plan to do in the company… We gave them the power to leave if they don’t want what we’re doing,” Ressa explained, adding that the ON also waived the clause when it learned that SEC had a problem with it.

“What they did, they ignored it,” she said, referring to their submission of the waiver to the SEC.

“When they made a decision, they did not ask us to comment, they did not allow us to fix anything. I think that’s where you see that this is political in nature,” she added.

Ressa noted that in other cases handled by the SEC, the commission allowed the respondents to fix the provisions that it found problematic.

In the case of Rappler, she said the commission came up with an “overkill” decision to cancel Rappler’s certificate of incorporation for supposedly violating the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership.

“We understand what the SEC can see in it, but we’re never given a chance to respond… (We had) no chance to respond, no chance to fix. We already showed that we want to fix (it),” she said.

Ressa said it was a clear case of political attack, noting that the investigation was prompted by a letter from Solicitor General Jose Calida.

“It’s harassment… This is government-instigated,” she said.

“I have great respect for some of the people who are in the SEC, but I have been told that there is political pressure, this is political in nature… They are trying to attack us at an economic angle,” Ressa added.

The SEC earlier said that Rappler can continue its operations as the decision has yet to reach finality.

Rappler said it would use all legal remedies to appeal the ruling.

Roque’s ex-firm hits SEC order

The Center for International Law (CenterLaw), an advocacy group co-founded by presidential spokesman Harry Roque, described the decision of the SEC to cancel the corporate registration of news website Rappler as “unconstitutional and outrageous.”

In a statement, CenterLaw said the SEC order is tantamount to prior restraint and therefore comes with the heavy presumption of unconstitutionality.

“If the annals of constitutional adjudication were to give an able guide, since press freedom is a preferred constitutional value in the Philippines, what the SEC should have done was to give Rappler an opportunity to correct its ownership structure. Instead, the SEC got down to business right away with guns blazing,” the group said.

“Thus, at best, the SEC’s decision is a prime example of outrageous legalism blind to law’s greater purposes; at worst, it is one cloaked with unconstitutional motivations,” it added.

CenterLaw noted that the Constitution that prescribes restrictions on ownership of Philippine mass media is also the very Constitution that has placed free expression at the topmost rungs of constitutional freedoms.

It cited Supreme Court rulings that gave the right to free expression the preference over other rights, including those involving property rights.

“The same high court has also ruled that not every violation justifies the stifling of free speech, enjoining government to consider the totality of circumstances before penalizing the free exercise of speech and expression,” CenterLaw said.

“That this move to cancel its corporate registration is linked to the President’s public statements disparaging Rappler is proven by the fact that it was no less than the Office of the Solicitor General that so moved,” it added.

According to the group, the request made by Calida for the SEC to investigate Rappler is a form of collateral attack or “restraining a known critic of the government’s drug war, not by directly censoring it but by cancelling its corporate registration.”

“But as every student of constitutional law knows, what may not be done directly, by the same token, may not be achieved indirectly,” CenterLaw said.

“And there’s the thing: for Rappler claims the SEC denied them what it had in fact allowed other similarly placed entities to do. This smacks of a lack of due process, not to mention unequal treatment, which are also unconstitutional acts,” it added.

CenterLaw, co-founded by Roque in 2003, advocates freedom of expression, human rights and humanitarian law.

It represents families of murdered journalists and victims of other human rights abuses, including those affected by the Duterte government’s war on drugs.

New York Times hits Duterte

In a scathing editorial, the New York Times (NYT) slammed the Duterte administration over the SEC decision.

“The action against Rappler is only the tip of Mr. Duterte’s assault on his media critics. His supporters have also made the Philippines a swamp of fake news, conspiracy theories and online harassment,” read the editorial.

“Mr. Duterte has refused to condemn the flood and has denied any involvement in its creation. Predictably, he also denied that the revocation of Rappler’s license was political, and he said he didn’t care whether or not Rappler continued to operate,” it added.

But the NYT noted that the SEC decision came after Duterte claimed that Rappler is owned by foreigners, the same basis for the ruling that canceled its registration.

It called on its readers to join Rappler in standing up against Duterte.

“Exposing such brazen abuse of power is a hallowed mission of a free press, so it should come as no surprise that authoritarians like Mr. Duterte usually go after independent media,” said NYT.

NPC: No threat vs press freedom

Deviating from criticisms made by other media groups, the National Press Club (NPC) said the exercise of press freedom in the Philippines has not been threatened by the SEC’s decision to shut down Rappler.

“And going through the 29-page decision, the SEC finding is quite clear: that Rappler Inc. has indeed violated the law when it allowed the entry of foreign investors and also allowed, specifically, Omidyar Network Fund LLC, to have control on corporate matters,” NPC president Paul Gutierrez said.

“Responsible journalism also means complying with the law… In this case, we cannot be swayed by the emotion of the moment and go along with the general sentiment that press freedom has been threatened lest we be accused of inconsistency,” he added.

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday said she believes any move to curtail freedom of expression should alarm Filipinos.

“This can be a cause for alarm for us, because we know that freedom of the press, the freedom of expression, is one of the rights that we continue to uphold under the Constitution,” she said.

Robredo also cited the importance of the media’s “watchdog” role to prevent abuse of those who are in power.

Robredo underscored the need for the SEC to make clear its decision.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto yesterday said “a noisy press is the soundtrack of democracy.”

He said that for democracy to thrive, a free and untrammelled press is essential, and to put a muzzle on independent reporting is to limit the exchange of ideas essential to good governance.

“Citizens, whether they blog to their community or broadcast to the country, should not be deprived of this most cherished of rights that our heroes fought for so that we, their descendants, may enjoy it,” Recto said.

The senator warned that freedom of the press is wasted if solely used to praise.

International condemnation

International journalists’ organizations have condemned what happened to Rappler, saying this represented a clear and immediate danger to press freedom in the Philippines.

“We call on authorities to reverse the politicized decision to revoke Rappler’s operating license and to desist from all legal threats and harassment against its journalists and executives,” Committee to Protect Journalists’ senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin said.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) described the move against Rappler as an unacceptable attack on press freedom.

“The revocation of Rappler’s license is the latest stage in President Duterte’s open war against independent media,” a senior official at RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk said, noting that it comes amid constant attacks on media outlets that criticize Duterte’s notorious war on drugs.

In RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index, the Philippines is ranked 127th out of 180 countries. – Helen Flores, Paolo Romero, Jose Katigbak, Rainier Allan Ronda, Marc Jayson Cayabyab

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