Maria Ressa | Biography, Journalist, Nobel Prize, Princeton, & Facts (2024)

Maria Ressa (born October 2, 1963, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino-American journalist who, through Rappler, the Manila-based digital media company for investigative journalism that she co-founded, became known for detailing the weaponization of social media and for exposing government corruption and human rights violations. Her reporting led to a backlash from the Philippine government, and Ressa, who holds dual citizenship, became an international symbol of the fight for freedom of the press in hostile circ*mstances. With Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, she was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, cited for using “freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence, and growing authoritarianism in her native country.”

Ressa moved to the United States with her family in the 1970s after martial law was declared in the Philippines. She attended Princeton University as a premed student and earned a degree in English with a certificate in theater and dance. Following graduation in 1986, she went back to the Philippines on a Fulbright scholarship to study in Manila.

Ressa’s return to the Philippines coincided with a series of popular demonstrations known as the People Power Revolution. As the country transitioned from authoritarianism to democracy, Ressa embarked on a career in journalism. Early on she worked for ABS-CBN, a Philippine news and entertainment broadcaster, and PTV-4, the flagship station of the Philippine government’s television network, PTV. Ressa then joined CNN, working as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent as well as serving as bureau chief in Manila (1987–95) and Jakarta (1995–2005). During her tenure at CNN she reported on major political events throughout Southeast Asia. These included the six coup attempts on Philippine Pres. Corazon Aquino (1986–87), the first elections (1992) following the 1987 ratification of the Philippine constitution, the downfall of Indonesian Pres. Suharto (1998), the violence following East Timor’s referendum on independence (1999), and the impeachment trial of Philippine Pres. Joseph Estrada (2000).

After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, Ressa investigated the growth of terrorist groups in Southeast Asia—particularly Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda’s arm in the region. She published her findings in the book Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia (2003). In 2005 Ressa returned to ABS-CBN, as head of news and current affairs. About this time she also looked into how terrorist networks used social media platforms to radicalize and mobilize followers, documenting her research in the book From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism (2013).

In 2012 Ressa launched the Rappler website, serving as its CEO and executive editor. The site grew quickly, becoming one of the largest news sources in the Philippines. It gained a significant amount of attention when in 2015 Ressa interviewed Rodrigo Duterte, then the mayor of Davao City, and he admitted to having killed three people. After he was elected president of the Philippines in 2016, Rappler was one of the few news organizations in the country to criticize his policies. It published extensively on his war on drugs, in which thousands of extrajudicial killings took place. Other stories exposed government corruption and human rights violations. Ressa continued to investigate social media, and in 2016 and 2017 she documented how the Philippine government and its supporters used social media to spread disinformation, harass opponents, and manipulate public discourse.

Soon afterward, the Philippine securities and exchange commission began an investigation of Rappler, and it briefly revoked the site’s operating license in 2017. In subsequent years, Rappler and Ressa endured harassment from social media trolls, had reporters barred from the presidential palace, and faced a number of lawsuits, including several alleging tax evasion and violations of foreign-ownership rules. Numerous warrants were issued for Ressa’s arrest, and in 2020 she was convicted of cyber-libel, which carried a sentence of up to six years in prison. In the midst of appealing that conviction and anticipating the outcome of several pending cases, Ressa was handed a legal victory in January 2023 when she and Rappler were acquitted of tax evasion. Ressa celebrated the decision by declaring “Today, facts win, truth wins, justice wins.” In September of that year, she and Rappler were acquitted of another tax evasion charge. Her conflicts with the government were the subject of the documentary A Thousand Cuts (2020). In 2022 Ressa published How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, a memoir and manifesto arguing that social media companies have a role in the gradual decline of democracy.