On June 20, 2025, a Philippine court acquitted Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and five company directors of violating the Anti-Dummy Law, concluding a case initiated in 2018. The court found the prosecution’s evidence “grossly insufficient” to establish that independent news outlet Rappler, an MDIF client, had violated constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of media.
The acquittal follows the 2024 decision by the Philippine Court of Appeals to overturn the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order revoking Rappler’s licence.
Since 2017, Rappler and Ressa have faced a barrage of online harassment and a series of legal challenges, including 23 cases that international observers view as attempts to suppress independent reporting. The prosecutions were brought under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, which was hostile to independent journalism.
While several cases have been dismissed since the election of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in 2022, Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. still face a 2020 cyber libel conviction, currently under final appeal before the Philippine Supreme Court.
MDIF welcomes the recent acquittal and urges the Philippine justice system to overturn the remaining conviction against Ressa.