Ressa says Philippine courts to decide Rappler closure order

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa said her Rappler news website was operating “business as usual” 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’ Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday affirmed its revocation of Rappler’s 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. “Part of the reason I didn’t have much sleep last night is because we essentially got a shutdown order,” Ressa told the audience.

She told reporters later in a Zoom interview that Rappler would continue to stand up for its rights. “You’ve 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’s 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,” Lim said Wednesday in Manila.

“Rappler is facing government retaliation for its fearless reporting about rights abuses in the ‘drug war,' Duterte and Marcos’ 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...