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HONOLULU (June 28, 2022) — Nobel Peace Prize winner and press freedom champion Maria Ressa announced today that her online news organization Rappler was hit with a shutdown order yesterday from the Philippines Security and Exchange Commission. During her keynote address to the East-West Center International Media Conference, Ressa read a statement on the order, which she said was an affirmation of an earlier decision to revoke Rappler’s certificate of incorporation. (View photos from the conference.)
Under outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, the government has filed multiple charges in recent years against Ressa and Rappler, which many feel is retaliation for her critical reporting on Duterte’s deadly drug war.
“You are the first to hear this,” Ressa told the combined in-person and online audiences of around 450 international journalists and media professionals gathered for the conference on the theme of Connecting in a Zero-Trust World. “Last night our lawyers informed of this ruling that effectively confirmed the shutdown of Rappler. But we are entitled to appeal this decision and we will do so, especially since the proceedings were highly irregular. But if you live in a country where rule of law is bent to the point that it's broken, anything's possible, right? In the meantime, it is business as usual for us. We will adapt, adjust, survive, and thrive. As usual, we will hold power to account. We will tell the truth.”
Ressa went on to speak about the effect of big social media platforms essentially becoming the world’s major distributors of news, which she said “actually prioritizes the toxic.” Asking if there was any way to restore trust, she recounted her Nobel Prize address: “I said, let’s have a person-to-person defense of democracy. When we are living in a world where meaning is atomized into meaninglessness, we must make sure our area of influence has meaning.”
Coverage inquiries: For questions about media coverage of the conference, please contact: Derek Ferrar +1 (808) 944-7204; [email protected].
The EWC 2022 International Media Conference is co-hosted by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Sponsors include Pacific Century Institute, Meta, U.S. Embassy Pakistan, and Mizzima Media Group.
HONOLULU (June 28, 2022) — Nobel Peace Prize winner and press freedom champion Maria Ressa announced today that her online news organization Rappler was hit with a shutdown order yesterday from the Philippines Security and Exchange Commission. During her keynote address to the East-West Center International Media Conference, Ressa read a statement on the order, which she said was an affirmation of an earlier decision to revoke Rappler’s certificate of incorporation. (View photos from the conference.)
Under outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, the government has filed multiple charges in recent years against Ressa and Rappler, which many feel is retaliation for her critical reporting on Duterte’s deadly drug war.
“You are the first to hear this,” Ressa told the combined in-person and online audiences of around 450 international journalists and media professionals gathered for the conference on the theme of Connecting in a Zero-Trust World. “Last night our lawyers informed of this ruling that effectively confirmed the shutdown of Rappler. But we are entitled to appeal this decision and we will do so, especially since the proceedings were highly irregular. But if you live in a country where rule of law is bent to the point that it's broken, anything's possible, right? In the meantime, it is business as usual for us. We will adapt, adjust, survive, and thrive. As usual, we will hold power to account. We will tell the truth.”
Ressa went on to speak about the effect of big social media platforms essentially becoming the world’s major distributors of news, which she said “actually prioritizes the toxic.” Asking if there was any way to restore trust, she recounted her Nobel Prize address: “I said, let’s have a person-to-person defense of democracy. When we are living in a world where meaning is atomized into meaninglessness, we must make sure our area of influence has meaning.”
Coverage inquiries: For questions about media coverage of the conference, please contact: Derek Ferrar +1 (808) 944-7204; [email protected].
The EWC 2022 International Media Conference is co-hosted by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Sponsors include Pacific Century Institute, Meta, U.S. Embassy Pakistan, and Mizzima Media Group.
