A COURT in the Philippines reversed a 2018 government order to shut down a prominent media organisation today, marking a legal victory for journalists who angered former President Rodrigo Duterte by reporting on his alarming human rights record.

The Court of Appeals ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to restore the certificates of incorporation of Rappler, an online news outfit founded by 2021 Nobel peace prize co-winner Maria Ressa, in a decision issued July 23.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the SEC would appeal the ruling.

“It’s a vindication,” Rappler said in a statement. “It’s a fact that the Duterte government used the SEC order to unleash its power to further harass us, our employees, our stakeholders and our communities.”

Rappler said it’s still facing two other legal cases: a cyber-libel conviction that Ms Ressa is appealing to the Supreme Court and a case pending in another Philippine court in which the outlet is accused of violating the “Anti-Dummy Law,” which prohibits Philippines nationals from acting as proxies for non-citizens to evade legal requirements.

Rappler has continued to operate during its legal fight, despite the closure order.

The court ruled that the 2018 shutdown order, one of several legal issues that Ms Ressa and Rappler faced under Mr Duterte, was made “with grave abuse of discretion, contravening established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the constitution.”

Mr Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ms Ressa and Rappler, which included tax lawsuits, were not a press freedom issue but part of normal judicial procedures.

But Mr Duterte was known for openly lambasting journalists and news agencies that critically reported about his deadly campaign against illegal drugs, including the country’s largest TV network, ABS-CNS.

ABS-CNS was shut down in 2020 after Duterte-allied politicians refused to renew its licence.

The Philippines has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world.

In 2009, members of a powerful political clan and their associates gunned down 58 people, including 32 media workers, in a brazen attack in southern Maguindanao province.

It was the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.