Rappler CEO wins Noble Peace Prize

[Mike J]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/rappler-ceo-maria-ressa-nobel-peace-prize-winner-vows-to-fight-for-the-facts-in-philippines/ar-AAPhalf

For journalist Maria Ressa, reporting the news has always been the priority. But the newly honored Nobel Peace Prize winner says she has been forced to "become the news" simply because of her determination to do the job properly and defend the rule of law.

Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of the Philippines-based news website Rappler, speaks at the Human Rights Press Awards at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong on May 16, 2019. - Currently free on bail after her second arrest this year, Ressa spoke on the dangers she and her colleagues face as journalists in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte. (Photo by Isaac LAWRENCE / AFP)    (Photo credit should read ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP via Getty Images)© Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of the Philippines-based news website Rappler, speaks at the Human Rights Press Awards at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong on May 16, 2019. - Currently free on bail after her second arrest this year, Ressa spoke on the dangers she and her colleagues face as journalists in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte. (Photo by Isaac LAWRENCE / AFP) (Photo credit should read ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP via Getty Images)
A day before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Ressa — the CEO of news site Rappler — spoke to CNN from her home in the Philippines.

Ressa discussed the 2022 Philippines presidential elections, which will be held in May next year. Rodrigo Duterte is standing down after a single six-year term in power.

A former CNN bureau chief and TIME Person of the Year, Ressa has been engulfed in legal battles in recent years and says she has been targeted because of her news site's critical reports on Duterte.

"I have covered this country since 1986, I've never been the news but the only reason I've become the news is because I refuse to be stamped down, I refuse to stop doing my job the way I should," Ressa said.

"I think rule of law is critical for any democracy because if you don't have rule of law then it is a hop, skip and a jump to fascism, because then whoever is in power decides who lives and who dies, literally."

Before co-founding Rappler, the Filipino-American journalist spent nearly two decades as a lead investigative reporter for CNN in Southeast Asia.

"I'm very lucky because of CNN. You know. I had enough of a network to be able to fight back ... I'm not fighting against the Duterte administration, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm still idealistic," she said Thursday.

'Endless pressure'
Ressa shared this year's Peace Prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who heads the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Ressa is the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize this year.

"Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said as she announced the prize in Oslo on Friday.

In a news release, the Nobel Committee said Ressa used "freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines."

It added: "As a journalist and the Rappler's CEO, Ressa has shown herself to be a fearless defender of freedom of expression. Rappler has focused critical attention on the Duterte regime's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign."

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Ressa highlighted the challenges she and Rappler have faced covering news in the Philippines under Duterte's regime.

"At CNN, I covered all the presidents since 1986 and I've never seen rule of law be so patronage-driven and selective," she said.

"Journalists have been targeted in ways that we've never gone through since the days of (Ferdinand) Marcos. In less than two years I've had 10 arrest warrants against me and I haven't done anything different from what I've been doing (before)."

In August, a Philippine court dismissed a cyber-libel case against Ressa, one of several lawsuits filed against her.

The #HoldTheLine Coalition — a group of press freedom and rights advocates including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders — welcomed the dismissal of what it described as a "spurious charge" and called "for all remaining charges to be immediately dropped and the endless pressure against Ressa and Rappler to be ceased."

Ressa was convicted in June last year in another cyber-libel case, filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng, and faces six years in prison unless the charge is overturned on appeal.

Ressa: 'A battle for truth'
With regard to the elections scheduled for next year, Ressa told CNN that reporting the facts was vital if democracy was to function properly.

"How are we going to have integrity of elections if the platforms that deliver the news are biased against facts, that they actually spread lies laced with anger and hate? How are we going to have integrity of elections? This will be a battle for facts, it will be a battle for truth," she said.

"There's a lot at stake for the Philippines [in 2022] because if we don't get fact based, evidence based reasoning, a shared reality, then we're not going to come out of this. We're going to splinter even further.

"But I'm not sure that's not the state of the world ... the weaknesses began when journalists lost our gatekeeping powers to technology. They're intertwined to me, the collapse of democracy starts with the breakdown of facts. And if you don't have facts you don't have the shared reality to find the right path. This is a global problem."

[graham59]

Good for her. Well-deserved, I'd have thought. 

[RBM]

Anybody heard if our  president has made a comment.

[Mike J]

5 minutes ago, RBM said:

Anybody heard if our  president has made a comment.

Not yet, but Rappler just published this article so it could very well happen.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/netizens-poke-fun-at-malacanang-silence-over-maria-ressa-historic-nobel-prize

'After years of trying to silence Maria Ressa, it is Duterte who has been silenced by her Nobel Peace Prize,' says Gideon Lasco

Congratulatory messages poured in for Rappler CEO Maria Ressa following her historic Nobel Peace Prize win announced on Friday, October 8 – a feat that has made many Filipinos at home and abroad brim with pride.

Ressa became the first Filipino to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She won alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is also the first for journalists since Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky won it in 1935 for revealing his country’s secret post-war rearmament program. (What you need to know: Filipinos and the Nobel Peace Prize)

Netizens observed that Malacañang had been quick to congratulate Filipinos who have done the country proud in international events, like Hidilyn Diaz who won the country's first Olympic gold in Tokyo. In the case of Ressa, however, no Duterte government official had said anything about her historic feat a day after the announcement, and counting.

Ressa and Muratov’s win comes at a time when journalists are persecuted in many parts of the world, incuding in their countries. Ressa, one of Rappler’s co-founders, has endured harassment from the Duterte administration.

[Snowy79]

I don't have a dog in the fight but from previous Nobel winners I think the award has lost it's shine. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

47 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

from previous Nobel winners I think the award has lost it's shine

At least the winners are better than the nominees who did not make it:

Quote

Nobel Peace Prize nominees included Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini  https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/nobel-peace-prize-nominees.html

 

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

At least the winners are better than the nominees who did not make it:

 

That shows how the awards have been highly politicized for a long time!

[scott h]

8 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I think the award has lost it's shine. 

 

[Mike J]

On 10/10/2021 at 8:26 AM, RBM said:

Anybody heard if our  president has made a comment.

Duterte has given a bit of a mixed message.  

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-president-congratulates-journalist-ressa-nobel-prize-spokesperson-2021-10-11/?fbclid=IwAR0sitspjRtck3q6T4t7DOyA5gqtUQZ-Xj1WUaZNTiVNBWJsd7MTV-evxGA

MANILA, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's office on Monday congratulated journalist Maria Ressa for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, calling it "a victory for a Filipina" for which it was happy to see.

Ressa, founder of Philippine news site Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov shared the 2021 prize after braving the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia to expose corruption and misrule.

Ressa has been fighting multiple legal challenges in courts related to Rappler's dogged investigative reporting of Duterte's government, its bloody war on drugs, and its use of social media to target opponents.

"It is a victory for a Filipina and we are very happy for that," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a regular news conference, responding to a question on what the award meant for the government.

"Of course it is true there are individuals who feel Maria Ressa still has to clear her name before the courts," he said, in the first comment on Friday's award from Duterte's camp.

The firebrand leader has described Rappler, launched in 2012, as a "fake news outlet" and a tool of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which Ressa has dismissed as nonsense.

The Prize was hailed by many in the Philippines, with critics saying it is a rebuke on Duterte, a frequent critic of Rappler.

It was the first Nobel Peace Prize for the Philippines and the first for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky won it in 1935. The Kremlin congratulated Muratov on Friday, describing the investigative journalist as talented and brave.

Asked on Monday what her message would be to Duterte, Ressa urged him not to pursue a divide and conquer approach.

"I beg you, unite this nation. Don't tear us apart," she said in an interview with news channel ANC.