The Hold The Line Coalition welcomes the Philippine Supreme Court’s final decision to close a lawsuit against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and her newspaper Rappler. The decision formally ends the Securities and Exchange Commission’s nearly decade-long efforts to shut down the independent news outlet with frivolous, politically motivated allegations of foreign ownership. The decision, issued in late January and conveyed to Rappler in late March, followed the Solicitor General’s withdrawal of its further challenge to earlier Appeal Court rulings in Rappler’s favor.
