Philippines drops foreign ownership case against Ressa

MANILA, Philippines — A foreign ownership case against Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been dropped, her media outlet said Wednesday, but the journalist still faces the threat of imprisonment on other charges.

Ressa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, has been fighting multiple charges filed during former president Rodrigo Duterte's administration.

A vocal critic of Duterte and his deadly drug war, Ressa has long maintained that the charges against her and Rappler, the news website she co-founded in 2012, were politically motivated.

Ressa, 60, was acquitted on five government charges of tax evasion earlier this year. 

The Department of Justice has now dropped a charge alleging Ressa illegally put Rappler under foreign control through the 2015 sale of foreign depositary receipts to US investment firm Omidyar Network, her lawyers Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Rappler confirmed the department's decision on Wednesday.

"Again, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins. We will continue to hold the line," Ressa said in the statement.

Under the Philippine constitution, only Filipino citizens or entities controlled by citizens can invest in the media. 

Ressa has argued that the Omidyar investment did not transfer ownership of the news outfit, nor did Omidyar exercise control.

The offence carried a maximum penalty of 21 years in jail under the country's Securities Regulation Code, Clooney and Gallagher said. 

A spokesman for the justice department did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment, while court officials declined to discuss the case and the city prosecutor was unavailable.

Ressa's lawyers said she still faced the prospect of a maximum 15-year jail sentence if convicted in a separate case stemming from the Omidyar investment.

Ressa and a former colleague are appealing a cyber libel conviction that carries a nearly seven-year jail sentence.

Rappler, meanwhile, is challenging a Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission order to close for allegedly violating a ban on foreign ownership in media.