Earlier today, news website Rappler announced that its foreign investor Omidyar Network, owned by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, would donate its Philippine Depository Receipts worth US$1.5 million (PHP75 million) to 14 of the company’s Filipino news managers.
Rappler said Omidyar did this to address the “unwarranted ruling” by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month that stripped the company of its license to operate last month. The SEC’s en banc interpreted that a clause in the PDR requiring Rappler to seek 2/3rds approval of the PDR holders constitutes foreign ownership.
Under current Philippine laws, mass media companies must be 100 percent Filipino owned.
READ: Securities and Exchange Commission revokes news website Rappler’s registration
Rappler hopes that this move will help settle the SEC’s concerns over foreign ownership in the company.
“Between then and now, independent media in the Philippines, including Rappler, has come under attack. We, therefore, welcome Omidyar Network’s decision to donate its investment to Filipino Rappler managers,” Rappler CEO Maria Ressa said in a statement after the announcement.
“This generous act proves that Rappler is, as it has always been, Filipino-owned and controlled,” Rappler said in another statement.
“We believe that independent and investigative journalists, such as the highly committed team at Rappler, should not have to put their jobs, freedom, and safety at risk to provide impartial news coverage. We must support and protect these courageous journalists around the world, otherwise, the press will lose objectivity, trust, and the ability to hold those in power to account,” Omidyar, said in a statement after a conference call with the news company’s executives this morning.
Rappler challenged SEC Chairperson Teresita Herbosa in their statement to prove that the move was “not politically motivated.”
The administration has been at odds with Rappler for several months for its aggressive and critical coverage of the government.
In January, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte himself called Rappler “fake news” for a story they published about how Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go allegedly intervened in a PHP15.5 billion (approx. US$300 million) project to acquire ships for the Philippine Navy.
READ: Rappler banned from covering Palace after reporter was barred from entering Malacañang this morning
More recently, Rappler’s Palace reporter and a member of the Malacañang Press Corps Pia Ranada was banned from entering the entire Malacañang complex.
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