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Bloomberg
Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, head of online media company Rappler Inc. that’s been critical of President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested in her office for libel.
State investigators escorted Ressa out of the Rappler office and brought her to their headquarters in Manila after serving the warrant at about 5:20 p.m local time on Wednesday, based on the media agency’s live video streaming of the arrest.
“I will follow. I’m just shocked that the rule of law has been broken to the point that I can’t see it,†Ressa said via Facebook live stream. She added that she plans to post bail and appeal her case. The Department of Justice last week indicted Ressa and a former reporter of Rappler for cyber libel, acting on a complaint filed by a businessman over an article published in 2012, months before the cyber-crime law was passed. An April 2018 Rappler story, citing Ressa, said the allegations were unfounded. Ressa, one of the journalists picked as Time magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2018, avoided arrest in December after posting bail for tax evasion cases.
Rappler, which Duterte once branded as a “fake news outlet,†is also currently appealing last year’s order from the Securities and Exchange Commission to shut its operations for allegedly violating foreign-equity restrictions in mass media.