Duterte Critic Maria Ressa Arrested Over Foreign Ownership Allegation

(Bloomberg) -- Maria Ressa, who heads Rappler Inc., a Philippine news site critical of President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested at the Manila airport early Friday for allegedly violating the ban on foreign ownership in media.

Ressa, one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2018, will immediately post bail, Rappler said on its website. This is the journalist’s second arrest under Duterte.

Government prosecutors charged Ressa and several other executives of the news website for allegedly violating the anti-dummy law when they allowed a foreign company -- U.S.-based Omidyar Network Fund Inc. -- to “intervene” in its management and operations despite a constitutional ban on foreign ownership of media. The charges were filed on March 20.

Ressa, who is also facing tax evasion and online libel cases, has said the foreign investor never had editorial or business control over the media company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last year ordered the closure of the site, once called a “fake news outlet” by Duterte, for the same foreign ownership issue. The Court of Appeals asked the SEC to review the order, saying the foreign control appeared to have been removed after Omidyar donated its depository receipts to Rappler’s local managers.

This case “is unprecedented and speaks volumes of the Duterte administration’s determination to shut the website down,” Carlos Conde, researcher at Human Rights Watch said. The charges against Rappler and its people should be dropped, he said.

--With assistance from Ditas Lopez and Andreo Calonzo.

To contact the reporter on this story: Karl Lester M. Yap in Manila at kyap5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Ditas Lopez

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