Location: Philippines, Manila
Date: February 10, 2022

The independent news outlet, Rappler was threatened with legal action by the state’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which labeled one of the publication’s articles as “disinformation”. Rappler and its CEO Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa have faced continuous legal harassment by the state. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) calls on Philippine authorities to step back from this threat and let independent journalists work  without fear of retaliation by the state. 

On February 5, 2022, a spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy, published a statement saying that the task force “is taking legal action” against Rappler. 

Referring to an article published on January 31 , fact-checking statements by Badoy, the statement claimed that legal action is being taken against Rappler for “its spread of disinformation that has brought and continues to bring great harm to our people and our beloved country”.

It further added that the task force will take legal action against Facebook (now Meta) “and hold them accountable for allowing their fact-checkers, Rappler and Vera Files [another news outlet], to abuse the immense powers of this designation to operate, with shameless impunity, the spread of false information that is inimical to national security and to use their platform to harm our citizens and the sovereignty of our nation, malign the government of the Republic of the Philippines and shake to its very core, the foundations of our Constitution”.

This is not the first time that Rappler has been legally threatened by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. The CFWIJ has closely followed the continued legal harassment of the publication and its co-founder and CEO Maria Ressa. Find our detailed timeline of the attacks on Maria and Rappler here.

In December 2021, when Maria was headed to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for her fierce commitment to press freedom, a lawsuit was filed against her news outlet Rappler and six other news organizations by a senior member of the Philippines cabinet. Maria too has at least eight active legal cases against her. 

The Duterte administration also attempted to prevent Maria from traveling to Oslo to attend the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. But the court’s intervened and she was permitted to leave the country for five days. 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the persistent legal harassment of the Rappler and its staffers. We call on the Duterte administration to abandon its attempts to threaten and intimidate the independent news outlet. The authorities must work towards building an environment that is safe and conducive for robust journalism instead of actively targeting critical journalists.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.