The Philippines’ Court of Appeals has ordered the country’s corporate regulator to restore the media license for news site Rappler, the company announced on [anti]social media on Friday. The site earned country’s former President Rodrigo Duterte’s ire for documenting abuses of power and extrajudicial killings during the former leader’s infamous war on drugs. The 2018 ruling and a 2022 decision upholding the original verdict, found that Rappler had violated rules about foreign ownership of media companies. At the time, Rappler founder and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa accused the government of “intimidation tactics” against critical voices and violating press freedom. In the decision dated July 23, the Court of Appeals wrote that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed “willful defiance” of the constitution.
— source dw.com | 08/09/2024