OPPOSITION GROUPS SLAM RESSA ARREST
Malacañang on Friday denied having a hand in the latest legal woes of an online news site whose reports have angered President Duterte as members of the political opposition, media and human rights groups denounced the arrest of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa as a curtailment of press freedom.
“Press freedom has nothing to do with the charges against Ms Ressa. She’s charged of a crime and there is a determination of probable cause, hence a warrant of arrest has been issued,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Two female police officers arrested Ressa at Ninoy Aquino International Airport early on Friday on her return from San Francisco. The arrest warrant was issued by Judge Acerey Pacheco of the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 265.
P90,000 bail
“I’m being treated like a criminal when my only crime is to be an independent journalist,” Ressa told reporters.
She later posted a P90,000 bail. Rappler managing editor Glenda Gloria and other defendants in the case posted bail on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch said the case against Ressa and Rappler was “unprecedented and speaks volumes of the Duterte administration’s determination to shut the website down for its credible and consistent reporting on the government, particularly the ‘drug war’ and the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and civilians.”
The case stemmed from a complaint by the National Bureau of Investigation accusing Rappler of violating the law by allowing a foreign investor, USbased Omidyar Network, to inject funds into the company.
The Constitution bans foreign ownership or control of massmedia but Rappler has argued that Omidyar had no control or influence over its news operations.
Opposition Sen. Francis Pangilinan denounced the arrest, saying it showed that the Duterte administration was determined to “pull out all the stops to silence critics and suppress the truth.”
“We condemn this mob mentality and aggression toward the media as we urge the various sectors not to be intimidated and stand for fairness and truth, and the right to free speech,” he said in a statement.
Other charges
Ressa said it was the seventh bail she had posted in a little over a year for 11 cases against her and Rappler.
The other charges against her and Rappler include several counts of tax evasion, cyberlibel, and a libel complaint against a Rappler reporter.
Ressa’s legal problems began in January last year when the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to revoke Rappler’s certificate of registration and incorporation for allegedly violating the constitutional restriction of 100-percent Filipino ownership and control of media entities. The case is under appeal.
Media and arts alliance Let’s Organize for Democracy and Integrity (Lodi) said Ressa’s arrest was “the latest installment in the Duterte regime’s calculated attacks on Rappler, specifically, and on Philippine media, generally.”
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the barrage of lawsuits against Rappler “seeks to silence or intimidate the independent and critical press.”
The women’s party-list Gabriela said Ressa’s arrest coincided with the “persistent cyberattacks” on a number of alternative media websites such as Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly.
Stark contrast
“Ressa’s recent arrest and the political persecution of women human rights defenders stand in stark contrast with the Duterte regime’s special treatment of big-time drug lords and plunderers who are being shielded from liability by no less than the President himself,” Gabriela said.
Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, an opposition senatorial candidate, said the arrest was part of a “script” to deflect attention from dismissed police official Eduardo Acierto’s claims that Mr. Duterte and top officials ignored findings that Chinese businessman Michael Yang, a former presidential adviser, had links to the illegal drug trade.