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'An outrage': global outcry at legal threat to news site that stood up to Duterte Philippine editor accuses Duterte of 'weaponising' rule of law
(about 1 hour later)
The decision by authorities in the Philippines to charge Rappler, a news website critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s regime, with tax fraud has prompted an outpouring of support from journalists around the world who have heralded editor Maria Ressa’s bravery. The editor of a Philippine news organisation charged with tax evasion has accused the government of President Rodrigo Duterte of using “brute force and intimidation” and “weaponising” the rule of law against its critics.
Rappler, which was founded and is run by Ressa, is facing charges of tax evasion that have been described as a direct attack on press freedom in the Philippines. Rappler, which was founded and is run by Maria Ressa, was charged with tax evasion over the weekend – the latest in an onslaught of government-initiated criminal charges and attacks on news organisations that have been critical of Duterte, putting the country’s free press at stake.
Alan Rusbriger, former editor of the Guardian, said on Twitter that the charges were “very concerning”, adding: “Maria Ressa is a great great journalist and needs all of our support.” “This is a completely uneven legal battle that bends the rule of law till the point it’s nearly broken,” said Ressa. “The government are using the power of the law to harass and intimate media organisations they see as critics. I can’t think of any precedent for this in the 32 years I’ve been a journalist in the Philippines”
Lydia Polgreen, editor of Huffington Post, said it was “an outrage”, and that Ressa was “a journalist of the highest integrity”. Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University, said the charges were an attack on “one of the most important free press figures in the world”. The government had accused the online news site – specifically Ressa, its executive editor – of failing to pay tax on the company’s 2015 bond sales to two foreign parties to the tune of $3m. If found guilty, Ressa faces 10 years in jail. Rappler denies all charges, which Ressa said were “without basis and clearly politically motivated”.
Emily Bell, director of the digital journalist centre at Columbia Journalism School, said Ressa had been “a beacon of energetic reporting in Duterte’s dark world”. She was echoed by Marty Baron, editor of the Washington Post, who described the charges as an “attack on one of the world’s bravest journalists”. David Clinch, global news editor of Storyful, said simply: “We have your back Maria.” Rappler, which was founded by Ressa in 2012, has grown to be one of the most influential news websites in the Philippines. After the election of Duterte in 2016, Rappler was at the forefront in exposing the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the president’s bloody war on drugs and also worked to shed light on the army of trolls flooding social media with pro-Duterte propaganda and threatening critics and journalists.
The government had accused Rappler, specifically Ressa, who is executive editor, of failing to pay tax on the company’s 2015 bond sales to two foreign parties to the tune of $3m. Rappler denies all charges and Ressa called it “a clear form of continuing intimidation and harassment.” The critical coverage of the Duterte administration angered the president, who began an all-out assault in attempt to muzzle Rappler. The government banned Rappler’s political reporter from the presidential palace. It also ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate Rappler for being “foreign-owned” – in what Ressa described as “fishing expedition” – then revoked its licence in January.
One the same day that news of Rappler’s inditement broke, Ressa was awarded the Knight international journalism award in Washington, DC. In her speech, as she collected the award, she said: “We battle impunity from the Philippine government and Facebook. Both seed violence, fear, and lies that poison our democracy. Those lies on social media formed the basis of the government’s legal cases against us.” The court of appeal found the case had no basis, so in March the SEC decided to investigate Rappler for tax evasion; usually such investigations take minimum of a year but the SEC decided to press charges in just five months. The government also has an ongoing cyber-libel case against not just Rappler but its entire editorial staff and board.
Rappler, which was founded by Ressa in 2012, has grown to be one of the most influential news websites in the Philippines. After the election of Duterte in 2016, Rappler was at the forefront in exposing the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the president’s bloody war on drugs and also worked to shed light the army of trolls flooding social media with pro-Duterte propaganda and threatening critics and journalists. “We were being investigated for this since March and we had prepared for everything but it’s like watching this slow-motion train wreck and you hope the drunk engineer will pull the breaks,” said Ressa.
The critical coverage of the Duterte administration angered the president, who began an all-out assault on the news site last year. The tax evasion charges filed over the weekend are the latest in a series of attempts by the government to muzzle Rappler and Ressa. “It’s hard when all we are trying to do is do our jobs as journalists. But we refuse to be intimidated. The fact that the government continues to attack us only means our sense of mission has never been so defined, our team has never worked as hard as it has now. We will continue to tell people when our democracy is fundamentally changing – which, right now, it is – and keep doing those tough stories.”
Last year, the government ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Rappler for being “foreign owned” – in what Ressa described as “fishing expedition” – then revoked its licence in January. The case is currently in the court of appeals. The government then banned its political reporter from the presidential palace where all media conferences are held. The independence of the supreme court in the Philippines, where the case is likely to end up, is widely acknowledged to be compromised by the fact it is filled with Duterte-appointed judges. Ressa said she knew the system was against them – “there hasn’t ever been a president who has as much power as President Duterte does now” – but said her hope lay with “those men and women in government who have the power to stand up and keep our democracy alive, to maintain the rule of law”.
Duterte has personally attacked Rappler in speeches and as a result, Ressa and her journalists have had to endure daily death and rape threats from what has been described as the “pro-Duterte online troll army”, with Ressa receiving up to 90 death threats an hour. The news site’s office in Manila brought in extra security and debated installing bulletproof glass. “They shouldn’t allow fear or greed to co-opt them or let one man change an entire society,” she added. The timeline of the charges is unclear; it can take a case up to a decade to reach the supreme court.
Speaking to the Guardian in March, Ressa said she intended to fight off every charge and attack that was thrown at her news organisation by the Duterte regime. “We’re ready to fight it,” she said. “The end goal is to keep reporting, as long as we’re a democracy, and this, as far as I know, is still a democracy.” Duterte has an extremely antagonistic relationship with the press, often borrowing from Trump’s playbook of branding critical stories as “fake news” and threatening reporters. He has personally attacked Rappler in speeches and Ressa and her journalists have received death and rape threats from what has been described as the “pro-Duterte online troll army”, with Ressa receiving up to 90 death threats an hour on social media. The news site’s office in Manila has brought in extra security and debated installing bulletproof glass.
News of the charges prompted an outpouring of support from journalists around the world. Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian, said on Twitter that the charges were “very concerning”, adding: “Maria Ressa is a great great journalist and needs all of our support.”
Lydia Polgreen, the editor of Huffington Post, said it was “an outrage”, and that Ressa was “a journalist of the highest integrity”. Marty Baron, the editor of the Washington Post, described the charges as an “attack on one of the world’s bravest journalists”. David Clinch, the global news editor of Storyful, said: “We have your back Maria.”
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