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Philippines rearrests Duterte critic journalist Maria Ressa
MANILA, March 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Philippine journalist Maria Ressa was
arrested Friday, her second detention in what press freedom advocates have
said is retaliation for her news site’s criticism of President Rodrigo
Duterte.
Ressa and her website Rappler have been hit with a string of criminal
charges that have sent shockwaves through the Philippine media scene,
prompting allegations they are being targeted for their work.
The veteran reporter, named a Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018, was
taken into custody by authorities in Manila, said Rappler co-founder Beth
Frondoso.
“They got her at the airport,” Frondoso told AFP. “We will be filing bail.”
Bail for Ressa, who holds Philippine and American passports, is normally
automatic in this case and she was to go before a judge on Friday morning.
She was taken into custody on a charge that she allowed her name to be used
to circumvent a Philippine law against foreign ownership of media properties,
a charge that stems from a 2015 investment into Rappler.
Under the constitution, the media is an economic sector which is reserved
for Filipinos or Filipino-controlled entities.
– ‘Unprecedented’ –
Philippine authorities arrested Ressa in February on an internet libel
charge, which sparked international condemnation and allegations that she was
being targeted for Rappler’s critical stance on Duterte.
“This case against Ressa… is unprecedented and speaks volumes of the
Duterte administration’s determination to shut the website down for its
credible and consistent reporting on the government,” said Carlos Conde of
Human Rights Watch.
Rappler has reported extensively, and unflatteringly, on Duterte’s deadly
anti-drugs crackdown that has claimed thousands of lives and which rights
groups say may be a crime against humanity.
The narcotics crackdown is Duterte’s signature initiative and he fiercely
defends it against criticism.
High-profile critics have wound up in jail or been pushed out of their jobs
in government, including the nation’s first female chief justice of the
Supreme Court.
Ressa insists the site is not anti-Duterte, saying it is just doing its job
to hold the government to account.
This latest case comes after she as well as current and former associates
of Rappler have been bit by government prosecutors with tax and securities
fraud charges.
The country’s corporate regulator revoked Rappler’s business licence last
year over the bond sale, but the site continued operating as it appealed the
case in the courts.
Last month, Ressa spent a night in detention but eventually posted bail for
allegedly libelling a businessman in a news article written in 2012.
Ressa’s legal team said this latest case would not stop Rappler from doing
its work.
“Let it be clear that these acts of harassment will not deter our clients
from doing their duty as journalists,” legal counsel Francis Lim said in a
statement. “We believe in the rule of law.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0825 hrs