- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
Court allows Philippine news site Rappler to continue operating
A Philippine news site co-founded by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa can continue operating after a court overturned a shutdown order, according to the ruling released Friday, the latest legal victory for the media outfit.
Ressa and Rappler have been fighting multiple court cases filed during former president Rodrigo Duterte's administration.
Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, was a vocal critic of Duterte and the deadly drug war he launched in 2016.
That triggered what media advocates say was a grinding series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks against her and Rappler.
"It's a vindication after a tortuous eight years of harassment," Rappler said in a statement.
"It's a fact that the Duterte government used the SEC order to unleash its power to further harass us, our employees, our stakeholders and our communities."
The Court of Appeals decision, issued on July 23 but only released to the media on Friday, reversed a previous ruling by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that had ordered the shutdown of Rappler.
The SEC order had been a "grave abuse of discretion" and contravened "established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the Constitution", the court said.
The SEC shutdown order was affirmed on June 28, 2022, days before Duterte left office. It was first issued in 2018.
It revoked Rappler's "certificate of incorporation" for violating constitutional and statutory restrictions on foreign ownership in mass media.
Rappler has continued operating as it appealed the SEC order.
Under the constitution, investment in media is reserved for Filipinos or Filipino-controlled entities.
The case sprang from the 2015 investment from the US-based Omidyar Network, established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Omidyar later transferred its investment in Rappler to the site's local managers to stave off efforts by Duterte to shut it down.
After the overturning of the SEC decision, Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde said that "justice and good sense have prevailed".
"The Court of Appeals decision to void the SEC's shutdown order against Rappler is long overdue," Conde said.
"That order should never have been handed down by the Duterte administration, whose vindictiveness knew no bounds."
The Department of Justice dropped a charge last year alleging Ressa illegally put Rappler under foreign control.
Ressa has also been acquitted on five government charges of tax evasion.
Ressa and a former colleague are still appealing a cyber libel conviction that carries a nearly seven-year jail sentence.
She also faces the prospect of a maximum 15-year jail sentence if convicted in a separate case stemming from the Omidyar investment.
P.Costa--AMWN