The Department of Justice dropped a foreign ownership case against Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, Rappler reported on Wednesday.
However, Ressa still faces the threat of imprisonment on other charges.
“Again, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins. We will continue to hold the line,” Ressa said in a statement published by her media outlet.
Ressa’s lawyers Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher said the DOJ 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.
Omidyar Network later transferred its Rappler investment to the site’s local managers.
The DOJ has yet to comment on Rappler’s report.
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 offense carried a maximum penalty of 21 years in jail under the DOJ country’s Securities Regulation Code, Clooney and Gallagher said.
Ressa and Rappler earlier faced five government charges of tax evasion stemming from the 2015 issue of Philippine depositary receipts. They were acquitted of all five charges.
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 also 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.
Despite the remaining hurdles, Ressa in September was characteristically defiant and optimistic after hurdling her last tax evasion case, telling reporters the latest acquittal “strengthens our resolve to continue with the justice system.”
“It shows that the court system works and we hope to see the remaining charges dismissed,” she said.
Throughout the cases against her, Ressa, who is also a US citizen, has remained based in the Philippines. AFP
