Maria Ressa

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Maria Ressa, 2011

Maria Angelita Ressa (born October 2, 1963 in Manila ) is a Filipino journalist and author . She is co-founder, managing director and editor-in-chief of the online news portal Rappler and was the chief investigative reporter for CNN International in Southeast Asia for nearly two decades . In 2021 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Life

Maria Ressa was born in the Philippines and grew up in Manila. When she was nine years old, her parents moved her to Toms River, New Jersey , USA , where Ressa graduated from high school in 1982 .

Maria Ressa then studied biology and English at Princeton University ( New Jersey , USA ), where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English. She then returned to Manila on a Fulbright scholarship for political theater and completed a master's degree at Diliman University in the Philippines. During this time she already turned to journalism.

She got her first job in 1987 with the news channel CNN International . From 1988 to 1995 she headed the CNN office in Manila (Philippines) and from 1995 to 2005 the CNN office in Jakarta ( Indonesia ). As the lead investigative reporter for CNN in Asia, she specializes in investigating terrorist networks.

Ressa in 2010

From 2004 to 2010, Ressa headed the news department of the Philippine TV and online network ABS-CBN . She also continued to work for CNN and The Wall Street Journal . In an open letter dated October 11, 2010, Ressa announced that it would not renew its six-year contract with ABS-CBN. She moved to the International Research Center for Political Violence and Terrorism (ICPVTR) of the S. Rajaratnam Institute for International Studies at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore as Writer in Residence.

In 2012, Ressa and colleagues founded the online news portal Rappler , which was initiated as a social media news channel back in 2011.

Ressa is the author of two books on the rise of terrorism in Southeast Asia . So far, Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center has been published in 2003 and From Bin Laden to Facebook 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism only in English.

Fight for freedom of the press

Rappler and his managing director Maria Ressa came under pressure because of their reporting on the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte , in particular because they had reported critical of the "war on drugs" and Duterte's call for vigilante justice by vigilantes and police.

On January 22, 2018, Maria Ressa had to appear before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as managing director of Rappler to comply with the subpoena based on an online defamation suit brought against Ressa, former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos and businessman Benjamin Bitanga had been. The charges against Ressa and her colleagues had been obtained from the businessman Wilfredo Keng after the web portal Rappler had published an article about him.

In November 2018, the Philippine authorities announced that they would indict Ressa and Rappler's parent company, Rappler Holdings Corporation, of tax evasion and failure to submit tax returns. Both Ressa and Rappler have denied tax evasion or wrongdoing.

"This is a clear form of persistent intimidation and harassment against us, and an attempt to silence journalists," Rappler said in a statement after the Duterte government brought allegations against the news portal and its managing director Ressa in early November 2018. On June 15, 2020, Ressa was found guilty of defamation; the sentence is still pending. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch criticized the verdict as a "frontal attack on freedom of the press".

honors and awards

Maria Ressa has received various awards for her journalistic work, including the Overseas Press Club Award for best documentary , the National Headliner Award for investigative journalism , an Emmy nomination for outstanding investigation, the Asian Television Award TOWNS - Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (Philippines) and TOYM.

In 2010, the US men's magazine named Esquire Ressa the "sexiest woman in the Philippines" on the grounds: "Despite her size, fearless enough to write an eyewitness account of Al Qaeda."

In 2015, the Philippine Movie Press Club presented Maria Ressa with Excellence in Broadcasting Lifetime Achievement at the 29th PMPC Star Awards for Television .

In 2016, she was listed as "one of the eight most influential and powerful women in the Philippines" by Calibrr , an Indonesian workforce platform .

In November 2017, as managing director of the news organization Rappler , Ressa accepted the 2017 Democracy Prize from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a non-profit organization that supports democratic participation worldwide, which was awarded to three organizations on the subject of "Disinformation vs. Democracy: Fighting for Facts" .

In June 2018, Ressa also received the Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers for her work with Rappler . In 2018 she was also awarded the Gwen Ifill Prize for Press Freedom by the CPJ , the Committee to Protect Journalists .

In December 2018 she was honored by the US magazine Time as Person of the Year 2018 and Guardian in the "War on Truth".

In November 2020, Ressa was awarded the Tucholsky Prize by the Swedish section of PEN for her resistance to restrictions on free speech.

In October 2021 Ressa was together with the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded. Both received the award “for their efforts to uphold freedom of expression, which is a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace”.

factories

  • Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia . The Free Press, New York 2003, 272 pages, ISBN 978-0-7432-5133-4 .
  • From Bin Laden To Facebook: 10 Days Of Abduction, 10 Years Of Terrorism . Imperial College Press, London 2013, 308 pages, ISBN 978-1-908979-53-7 .

Web links

Commons : Maria Ressa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amanda Oglesby: TIME person of the year, from Toms River, to trigger Time Square ball dro . Ashbury Park Press, December 31, 2018
  2. ^ Tanya T. Lara: Maria Ressa: Writing from the war zones . Philstar, December 21, 2003
  3. ^ Almond N. Aguila: Maria Ressa: The best is yet to come . Philstar, September 4, 2005
  4. ^ Spreading terror: From bin Laden to Facebook in Southeast Asia. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  5. ^ Maria A. Ressa: Noynoy Flunks His First Test . In: Wall Street Journal . September 6, 2010, p. en ( wsj.com [accessed January 26, 2019]).
  6. ^ ABS-CBN News: Maria Ressa's letter to ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Arne Perras: Maria Ressa - The Filipino journalist becomes the opponent of the autocrat Duterte. Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 5, 2018, accessed on February 1, 2019 (German).
  8. ^ Joshua Berlinger: Maria Ressa, Rappler formally indicted by the Philippines on tax evasion charges. CNN, November 29, 2018, accessed February 1, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Filipino journalist Maria Ressa sentenced , Spiegel Online, June 15, 2020.
  10. ↑ Esquire.com names Maria Ressa one of the sexiest women alive in the world, sexiest in the Philippines. October 14, 2010, accessed January 26, 2019 .
  11. ↑ ABS-CBN dominates 29th PMPC Star Awards for TV | ABS-CBN News. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  12. ↑ 8 Most Influential and Powerful Women Leaders. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  13. ↑ 2017 Democracy Dinner Explores the Global Threat of Disinformation. November 2, 2017, accessed January 26, 2019 .
  14. ↑ 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom Awarded to Maria Ressa of the Philippines - World News Publishing Focus by WAN-IFRA. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .
  15. ↑ 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award. CPJ, accessed February 1, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Deutsche Welle: "Time Magazine" honors journalists as "Person of the Year" | DW | December 11, 2018. December 11, 2018, accessed on January 26, 2019 (German).
  17. ^ Svenska PEN: "Maria A Ressa får årets Tucholskypris". November 9, 2020, accessed November 10, 2020 (Swedish).
  18. ^ The Nobel Peace Prize 2021 . In: nobelprize.org, October 8, 2021 (accessed October 8, 2021).
personal data
SURNAME Ressa, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ressa, Maria A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Filipino journalist and author
BIRTH DATE October 2nd, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Manila