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Rappler reporter barred from covering Duterte in Pasay City event

March 6, 2018 | 7:19pm

Rappler reporter barred from covering Duterte in Pasay City event

This file photo taken on January 15, 2018 shows employees of online portal Rappler working at the company's editorial office in Manila. President Rodrigo Duterte's move to ban news website Rappler from covering the presidential palace is a threat to press freedom, rights and media groups said on February 21, 2018. Ted Aljibe/AFP, file

MANILA, Philippines — The reporter for an online news outfit barred from entering Malacañang was also prevented from entering a hall where President Rodrigo Duterte was set to deliver a speech, the latest in an ongoing tiff between the chief executive and news site Rappler.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines labeled the move "a new point" in Duterte's "well-documented pettiness."

Reporter Pia Ranada, who until recently covered the president and news briefings at the Palace, was denied entry to the Go Negosyo 10th Filipina Entrepreneurship Summit at the World Trade Center after she was told she was not on the list of members of the Malacañang Press Corps provided to the organizers.

The Malacañang Press Corps has previously said Ranada remains a member.

It is unclear whether Ranada could have been allowed inside as a member of the audience of the public event.

Ranada said that she was told that she was not allowed to cover even Duterte's events outside of the palace, just weeks after she was barred from entering the presidential complex and covering Duterte's engagements over allegations that Rappler published inaccurate reports about the chief executive and his officials.

In a text message to Philstar.com, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that Ranada is barred from covering the president as a subject.

"They can report based on what STAR and other reporters write or on the basis of TV coverage," he said.

NUJP: Ban a show of vindictiveness

NUJP slammed this move and said that the president and whoever was advising him on the matter are wrong if they think that they could "humiliate or totally prevent" any journalist or media outfit from covering events of public interest and importance.

"As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat," the group said.

NUJP said that this "show of vindictiveness" was not just "pathetically childish" but also worrisome as it shows Duterte's penchant for taking shortcuts in a case still pending before the courts.

"In short, it betrays his lack of respect for democratic institutions and processes," NUJP said.

Rappler has been caught in the government's crosshairs following its critical coverage of the administration and its policies, especially its brutal campaign against illegal drugs.

The news outfit's corporate registration was cancelled by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government corporate regulator, for violations of the country's prohibition on foreign ownership of media. Rappler has brought the matter to the Court of Appeals.

Omidyar Network, one of Rappler's foreign investors, recently donated the questioned investments to some managers of Rappler in an effort to address SEC's basis for the decision.

Weeks ago, Ranada was barred from entering the presidential complex and covering the chief executive supposedly because of so-called "fake news" from Rappler, a charge that it has denied.

Before this, Rappler and the Philippine Daily Inquirer released articles that said that Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go tried to meddle in a multibillion-peso frigate deal of the Philippine Navy.

The presidential aide appeared in a Senate investigation and denied his supposed interference to favor a South Korean firm.