Rappler CEO says Philippine SEC upholds ruling to revoke news site's license

Ressa, CEO and founder of Rappler, said during the East-West Center's International Media Conference in Honolulu that the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission PSEC has upheld its earlier ruling to revoke the news site's operating license.

A former CNN bureau chief and TIME Person of the Year, Ressa said the team will appeal the decision, especially since the proceedings were highly irregular. We have existing legal remedies all the way up to the highest court of the land. It is business as usual for us since the court approval is not immediate, according to Ressa's internal announcement to Rappler staff.

In January 2018, the Philippine SEC revoked the registration of Rappler over alleged violations of foreign ownership rules. The newsroom continued to operate despite the revocation. The SEC alleged that Rappler's parent company intentionally created an elaborate scheme to cover an investment from a foreign source, and that the organization is a mass media entity that sells control to foreigners. Mass media companies in the Philippines are not allowed to take foreign ownership, according to the constitution. The investment came from the Omidyar NetworkOmidyar Network, a investment vehicle created by eBay founder and entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar, said Rappler at the time. Nobel winner Maria Ressa vows to fight for facts and the rule of law Rappler denied foreign ownership, and said the Philippine Depositary Receipt PDR, a financial instrument that governs the Omidyar investment, did not give the network any control over the company. The arrangement was accepted by the SEC in 2015, it said. CNN reached out to the Philippine SEC and the Philippine Embassy in the United States, but has not yet heard back. In an order released on Wednesday, the Philippine SEC reiterated its earlier finding from 2018 that Rappler is a mass media entity and it had granted control to a foreign entity through the Philippine Depositary Receipt issued to Omidyar Network. The order said Rappler and RHC willfully violate the constitution when they grant Omidyar control. The penalty of revocation should be affirmed and sustained considering the seriousness and gravity of the infraction, and that it was no less than the constitution that was violated by this commission.