MANILA - A foreign ownership case against Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been dropped, her media outlet said on Dec 13, but the journalist still faces the threat of imprisonment on other charges.
Ressa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, has been fighting multiple charges filed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
A vocal critic of Mr Duterte and his deadly drug war, Ressa has long maintained that the charges against her and Rappler, the news website she co-founded in 2012, were politically motivated.
Ressa, 60, was acquitted on five government charges of tax evasion earlier in 2023.
The Department of Justice has now dropped a charge alleging Ressa illegally put Rappler under foreign control through the 2015 sale of foreign depositary receipts to United States investment firm Omidyar Network, her lawyers Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher said in a statement on Dec 12.
Rappler confirmed the department’s decision on Dec 13.
“Again, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins. We will continue to hold the line,” Ressa said in the statement.
Under the Philippine Constitution, only Filipino citizens or entities controlled by citizens can invest in the media.
Ressa has argued the Omidyar investment did not transfer ownership of the news outfit, nor did Omidyar exercise control.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of 21 years in jail under the country’s Securities Regulation Code, Mrs Clooney and Ms Gallagher said.
A spokesman for the justice department did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment, while court officials declined to discuss the case and the city prosecutor was unavailable.
Ressa’s lawyers said she still faces the prospect of a maximum 15-year jail sentence, if convicted in a separate case stemming from the Omidyar investment.
Ressa and a former colleague are appealing a cyber libel conviction that carries a nearly seven-year jail sentence.
Rappler, meanwhile, is challenging a Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission order to close for allegedly violating a ban on foreign ownership in media. AFP
