International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday said that the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to shut down the Philippine-based online site Rappler Inc. is “nothing less than a politicized attack.”
“If Duterte succeeds in silencing Rappler, it will have a profound chilling effect on Philippine media at a time when free press is more urgently needed than ever,” HRW Asia Division Deputy Director Phelim Kline said in a statement Monday.
HRW who is a vocal critic of the Duterte administration believed that the move of the government was “a sinister use of state regulatory processes to stifle critical media voices.”
‘Timing of the decision is held suspect’
Meanwhile, Opposition detained Senator Leila De Lima said in a statement that the decision is a part of the trend of government assaults on institutions vital to the country’s democracy.
“This is an alarm that signals State repression of the freedom of the press, unwittingly started by an otherwise apolitical government institution that has all but ignored the repercussions of its decision on constitutional liberties, instead seeing the matter as a purely technical issue on corporate control and ownership,” De Lima said.
The constitution says it all
However, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque denied on Monday the accusations that the Duterte administration has participated with the license revocation of the Philippine-based online site Rappler Inc.
Roque, in an interview over DZMM, defended that those allegations were false claims, he said that the administration has nothing to do with it and the decision was solely from the en banc commission. He added that the constitution itself stated that any ownership of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines.
“Wala pong katotohanan ‘yan dahil ang Saligang Batas naman po ang nagsabi na hindi pupuwede na mag-ari ang mga dayuhan kahit isang share of stocks sa isang negosyo ng mass media. Kinakailangan ‘yan na 100% Filipino [It is not true because the constitution itself stated that those foreign companies cannot own even one share of stocks in a mass media business. It has to be 100% Filipino],” he said.
On Thursday, January 11, the commission en banc said that Rappler Inc. and its parent Rappler Holdings Corp. violated the Foreign Equity Restriction in Article XVI, Section 11(1) of the Constitution which states, “The ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens.”