Palace ban on Rappler reporter a 'renewed assault' on media — Human Rights Watch

MANILA, Philippines — An international rights watchdog on Wednesday slammed the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to ban a reporter from a critical news outlet from entering the presidential complex, saying that the order signaled a renewed assault of the Philippine leader on the country’s press.

Human Rights Watch said that ban imposed on Rapper journalist Pia Ranada was the first of its kind since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and could “portend” a broader assault on reporters and news organizations.

The group stressed that important role of news outlets in the Philippines today as they had magnified the government’s dismal human rights record which had been marred by allegations of extrajudicial killings in the administration’s war on drugs and conflict-related abuses in the country’s south.

“Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration renewed its assault on the media by banning a reporter and the executive editor from the news site Rappler from entering the executive office at Malacañang Palace,” the New York-based rights group said in a statement. 

In banning Ranada from its grounds and from covering the president’s engagements, Malacañang said that Duterte had lost trust in Rappler because of the so-called “fake news” it produced. 

READ: Roque: Rappler reporter lost trust of president

This order is the latest blow to the news outfit, known for its critical coverage of Duterte and his administration’s policies. 

Just last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government’s corporate regulator, issued a shutdown order on Rappler after it ruled that the investments it got from international investor Omidyar Network amounted to a violation of the constitutional ban on foreign ownership of media companies. 

Rappler has denied the claim and challenged the decision before the country’s appellate court.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines also criticized the order on Tuesday and labeled Duterte as a “petulant child” and “extremely petty.”

READ: NUJP: Palace ban on Rappler reporter shows 'extreme pettiness' 

His spokesman, Harry Roque, a former human rights lawyer, said that Duterte’s order came after the president got “irritated” with Ranada and Rappler for their supposed “fake news.”

This was contradictory to the explanation of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea who said that the president did not want to impose the ban was forced to do so because of the SEC order.

Rappler has been one of a handful of news outlets that have been critical of the Duterte administration, and its stories have been labeled by palace officials as untrue. 

Just last month, Rappler and the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran headlines that said that presidential aide Christopher “Bong” Go tried to intervene in a multibillion-peso Navy frigate deal to favor one company.

Duterte, who promised to fire officials upon smelling just a “whiff of corruption,” has personally defended his long-time assistant and in one testy exchange with the Rappler reporter labeled its story as “trash.”

On Monday, Go faced the Senate where he denied the allegations and slammed the news outfits for publishing the stories.

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