Rappler asks SC to strike down Duterte coverage ban

Online news site Rappler on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional President Rodrigo Duterte's order banning its reporters from covering public events attended by the Chief Executive.

In a petition for certiorari, Rappler Inc. and several other reporters asked the justices to issue a temporary restraining order stopping the government from implementing the ban.

Seeking the restoration of their access to events involving Duterte, they said the ban amounts to prior restraint, which the SC defines as any form of government restriction on expression.

The petition was filed by reporters Pia Ranada, Mara Cepeda, Raymon Dullana, Franklin Cimatu, Mauricio Victa, Camille Elemia, Ralf Rivas, and Baltazar Lagsa against the Office of the President, the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Presidential Communications Operations Office, the Media Accreditation Registration Office and the Presidential Security Group.

The journalists alleged the ban abridges the freedom of the press and violates the equal protection clause for "singling out" Rappler. They added that it was issued with grave abuse of discretion and sends a chilling effect on other news organizations and journalists.

Reacting to the petition. presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said: "It’s a free country. We do not interfere with the judiciary." 

Banned

Ranada, Rappler's designated Malacañang reporter, was first banned from entering the part of the presidential palace where press briefings are held in February 2018, an order she said she learned came from the President himself.

Shortly after, she was barred from entering the entire compound and from covering any public event attended by Duterte. Despite the ban, she has continued reporting on the President.

Duterte said his action was based on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruling that revoked Rappler's certificate of incorporation on an allegation the news site violated the constitutional restriction on foreign ownership of media.

Rappler has contested the SEC decision before the Court of Appeals, which remanded the case back to the corporate regulator for review. 

This February, Ranada reported that all Rappler reporters, even their provincial correspondents, have been prohibited from covering Duterte for a year.

"Plainly put, the ban was a retaliation for the content of their reporting," the petition stated. 

"When the Executive Branch branded Petitioner Rappler and those affiliated with it as a 'fake news outlet,' that 'twists' his statements and 'kaya bawal ngayon sila' (therefore, they are now banned), it took punitive action against them," it added. 

By banning them from covering the President, Malacañang "unilaterally deprived them of their status of journalists," it claimed.

"To sustain the threat of subsequent punishment by the government causes a chilling effect on the press and the People that violates the Constitution." — MDM/RSJ, GMA News