Manila (AFP) - A prominent critic of Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte asked the country's highest court Thursday to lift a government order banning her and colleagues from covering events attended by the president.
Reporters working for Maria Ressa's Rappler were banned last year from all of Duterte's public events, and the Philippine president has repeatedly lashed out at the online news site.
Rappler has taken a tough stance on Duterte's signature narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands of alleged drug dealers and users, but also cast a critical eye on his leadership and controversial public statements.
"You are not only throwing toilet paper. You are throwing shit at us," Duterte said in a 10-minute rant at a January 2018 news conference shortly before Rappler's reporter was banned from the presidential palace.
Two months later, in a speech that singled out Rappler, Duterte instructed government officials not to "talk to people who will produce lies out of your statements".
In seeking the Supreme Court's intervention to lift the coverage ban, Rappler Inc. and eight of its reporters said the Duterte government had violated their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
"The ban (is)... repugnant to the constitutional guarantee of free speech and a free press. Moreover, it creates a chilling effect on other news organisations and journalists," a copy of the petition read.
A court spokesmen did not immediately comment on the case.
"It's a free country. We do not interfere with the judiciary," Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters Thursday when asked to comment.
Ressa, Rappler's chief executive and executive editor, was arrested twice this year over a series of criminal charges she says are government attacks. She is currently out on bail.
She pleaded not guilty last week to tax evasion charges stemming from a 2015 bond sale that raised money from a US-based investor for the news site she co-founded.
The Philippines' corporate regulator revoked Rappler's business licence last year over the investment, but the site continued operating as it appealed the case in the courts.
After her second arrest the United States urged the Philippines to quickly resolve the case against Ressa, who holds Filipino and US passports, and allow her and Rappler to "operate freely".
The Duterte government maintains the Rappler cases have nothing to do with press freedom.
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