(Eagle News) — Rappler on Friday, March 29, slammed what it said was the issuance of warrants of arrest against its chief executive officer Maria Ressa and its board members.
In a statement posted on its website after Ressa’s arrest for the charge of violation of the Anti-Dummy Law, Rappler said issuing such warrants “has a chilling effect on the freedom of speech, on business and innovation.”
Her co-defendants, managing editor Glenda Gloria and five of the media outfit’s board members in 2016, Manuel Ayala, James Bitanga, Nico Jose Nolledo, James Velasquez and Felicia Atienza, have posted bail for the same charges.
According to Rappler, in the first place, those charged were “citizens of good standing in the community.”
It noted Ayala was a tech investor and, among others, a managing editor of Endeavor while Bitanga was a legal consultant, entrepreneur and investor in the technology space.
Rappler said Nolledo was a digital entrepreneur and a co-founder of Xurpas, a digital goods e-commerce company; Velasquez was PT&T president; and Atienza a former investment banker who also founded the Chinese International School.
“Instead of encouraging business and media to pursue innovation, government is stifling such initiatives. This pattern of harassment against Rappler that started in January 2018 when the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order revoking its license has not stopped. Now it casts a wider net to go beyond Maria Ressa and target other members of the Rappler board,” Rappler said.
It added the latest case “proves abuse of state power and the bending of law to intimidate and harass critics.”
“But journalists doing their jobs will not be intimidated. We will continue to #HoldTheLine,” it said.