For me, for Rappler, for journalists in the Philippines and for journalists, I think, everywhere around the world. I think that I'm a little bit deluged but, at the same time we feel the love. It's been a roller coaster of emotions, and sometimes the emotions catch you at the weirdest times. I'm still adjusting to it. I didn't realize how much busier it could get until now. Q: Can you tell us a little bit what your life has been like since you won the prize on Friday? The interview has been edited for length and clarity. We caught up with her to ask her about her work, her reaction to the Nobel Prize (which she shared with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov), and plans for her visit to Harvard in November. While Ressa and Rappler have gained international recognition for their work (before the Nobel announcement she had been Time’s Person of the Year in 2018), they’ve also suffered. Duterte has lashed out repeatedly, Ressa and the news organization face a slew of serious criminal charges, she is appealing a conviction on a “cyber libel” charge, and they also face near constant online attacks. Ressa, who grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Princeton, is a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership and a Joan Shorenstein Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Maria Ressa learned that she had won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize as the newsroom at Rappler, the Filipino digital news organization she founded and has led since 2012, busied itself reporting on the last day of candidates filing for the Philippines’ upcoming presidential elections. The timing was fitting. Rappler is devoted to aggressive reporting on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who cannot run again, and documenting extensive corruption and extrajudicial killings. Taubman Center for State and Local Government.Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy.Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.Local broadcaster ABS-CBN - also critical of Duterte - lost its free-to-air licence, while Ressa and Rappler endured what press freedom advocates say was a grinding series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks.ĭuterte's government said previously it had nothing to do with any of the cases against Ressa. Rappler was among the domestic and foreign media outlets that published shocking images of the killings and questioned the crackdown's legal basis. Rights groups estimate tens of thousands were killed. Trouble for Ressa and Rappler began in 2016, when Duterte came to power and launched a war against drug trafficking in which, according to official data, more than 6,200 people were killed in police anti-narcotics operations. Shortly after Marcos took office last year, Ressa lost an appeal against a 2020 conviction for cyber libel. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said in September he would not interfere in Ressa's cases, citing the separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government. The third outstanding case is also a tax-dodging charge against Ressa and Rappler. Omidyar Network later transferred its Rappler investment to the site's local managers to stave off efforts by Duterte to shut it down. The case springs from a 2015 investment by the U.S.-based Omidyar Network, established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Under the constitution, investment in the media is reserved for Philippine citizens or entities controlled by citizens. Rappler is challenging a Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission order to close for allegedly violating a ban on foreign ownership in media. "What we do know is that the world is watching and that we have a government that wants the world to watch. Ressa told AFP she was more hopeful about the prospects in the remaining cases, although she had left her fate up to the courts. Despite the ruling, Ressa still faces the threat of prison from the cyber libel case, while the future of Rappler, which she founded in 2012, remains uncertain.
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