Maria Ressa, the Philippine journalist and 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, spent two decades working as an investigative reporter, foreign correspondent and CNN bureau chief before heading the news division of her country’s biggest TV news channel.
But none of it prepared her for the torrent of threats, hatred and abuse she has faced from supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte since she co-founded the investigative news site Rappler with three fellow female journalists in 2012, developing it into one of the Philippine’s most popular news outlets.
“There were so many hate messages … Ninety hate messages an hour, 90 rape threats per minute,” Ressa, 58, recalled five years after the site launched. “When I was younger, I was a war correspondent. That was easier than this.” On social media she has been targeted through hashtag campaigns such as #ArrestMariaRessa.
Currently free on bail as she appeals a six-year prison sentence handed down last year for a libel conviction, Ressa expressed “shock and disbelief” on Friday after learning she had shared the prize with the Russian investigative journalist Dmitry Muratov.
Ressa said the award showed the committee had recognised that “a world without facts means a world without truth and without trust. When facts become debatable, she said, journalism becomes activism”.
Rappler, an online news platform with an ethos similar to a tech startup, operating with a small team of 12 young reporters and developers, was the first of its kind in the Philippines. It is now the fourth-biggest news website in the country, with more than 100 journalists.
It was among the first outlets in the world to illustrate the dark side of social media, and how it can be manipulated by populist leaders to win power. Its journalists have also shone a light on corruption under Duterte and documented the president’s brutal anti-drugs campaign, which has led, according to data cited by the international criminal court, to tens of thousands of killings.
Ressa has, in turn, been repeatedly targeted – in the courts, and online. The president has lashed out at her in speeches, accusing Rappler of peddling “fake news” and being a tool of the CIA, since it began investigating mass killings during a crackdown on drugs that has resulted in so many deaths that the Nobel committee compared it to “a war waged against the country’s own population”..
In total, Ressa, Rappler and other staff have faced at least 11 government investigations and court cases, including libel prosecutions, two criminal cases alleging illegal foreign ownership in her companies, and investigations into her old tax returns. Throughout the pandemic, Ressa has repeatedly attended court hearings.
Duterte has sasid these cases are not politically motivated. Yet they have been widely condemned by human rights groups. The United Nations high commissioner for human rights said that there appeared to be “a pattern of intimidation” of media in the Philippines. The US Senate has described the cyber-libel allegations against Ressa as “unjustified judicial proceedings”.
The site, which has said it “remains 100% Filipino-owned” and its foreign investors have no say in its operations, is also in a legal dispute with the Philippine government to have its licence – revoked in 2018 for alleged violations of laws on foreign ownership – reinstated.
Since Rappler was launched, Ressa, who is also a US citizen, has had to post bail 10 times to stay out of jail in response to a string of lawsuits accusing her of everything from defamation to tax evasion, fuelling international concern about media harassment in a country once seen as a standard-bearer for press freedom in Asia.
“We’re going through a dark time, a difficult time,” she said on Friday. “We realise that what we do today is going to determine what our tomorrow is going to be.” To keep doing what it does, “Rappler lives with the possibility of a shutdown on a daily basis – we’re on quicksand … What we have to do as journalists is just hold the line.”
Journalists in the Philippines, which ranks 138th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) world press freedom index, have widely celebrated Ressa’s award.
“Reporters routinely face online harassment, local newsrooms face pressure to self-censor, and regional journalists remain the most vulnerable to violence, including detention and killings,” said the the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. “Her win is a victory for press freedom advocates across the Philippines.”
