Philippine Nobel laureate Ressa's Rappler website wins appeal to overturn shutdown order

By Mikhail Flores and Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa's news website Rappler won an appeal to restore its corporate licence after a court overturned a regulator's decision to shutter the media company.

The Court of Appeals, in a July 23 decision made public on Friday, had ruled the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) overstepped its authority in ordering Rappler's shutdown in 2018.

"Like a bull seeing red, the SEC ... plowed through law and jurisprudence to reach its mark – the death of Rappler," the court said in its ruling.

The SEC declined to comment, saying it has yet to receive a copy of the decision.

Rappler's operating licence was rescinded in 2018 for violating foreign equity restrictions on media firms when it sold depositary rights to a U.S.-based company. The SEC upheld its findings in 2022.

It was allowed to operate for the last six years despite the shutdown order.

Rappler had previously argued that the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic arm of EBay founder Pierre Omidyar, was a silent investor. Omidyar cut ties by donating the depository receipts to Rappler's staff.

Ressa had welcomed the decision, saying it was a "vindication after a tortuous eight years of harassment".

"Journalists are not the enemy," Ressa told a news conference hours after the ruling went public.

Ressa won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian investigative journalist Dmitry Muratov in a decision widely seen as an endorsement of free speech rights that had come under fire worldwide.

She still faces at least two remaining charges, including a cyber libel conviction where she could face up to over six years of jail time. She is currently out on bail.

Rappler earned the ire of former President Rodrigo Duterte for its reporting on his anti-drug campaign which rights groups said have killed thousands of people. Rappler and Ressa were charged in at least nine indictments that included tax evasion charges which have been dismissed.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by John Mair and Kim Coghill)