World press condemn attacks on Philippine news site Rappler and co-founder Maria Ressa

Journalist Maria Ressa faces jail time

The Philippine government's attempts to shut down the online news site Rappler strikes at one of the pillars of democracy: a free and truthful press.

As the administration of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was preparing to transfer power to the newly elected President Bongbong Marcos, it delivered two vicious blows against Rappler and its co-founder Maria Ressa, the 2021Nobel Peace  laureate.

On June 28, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission affirmed its 2018 decision to revoke Rappler’s certificates of incorporation, effectively confirming its shutdown. 

Less than two weeks later, Ressa lost an appeal against a 2020 conviction for cyber libel, putting her one step closer to serving up to nearly seven years behind bars.

Rappler drew Duterte's wrath for its regular scrutiny of former Duterte’s self-proclaimed “war on drugs” – echoing serious concerns by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, about the widespread and systematic killing of thousands of alleged drug suspects.

The online news website also explored the spread of disinformation over the internet and social media, which heavily influenced the last two Philippine Presidential elections by the use of anonymous accounts that trolled social media, the news source for many Filipinos. 

Irony upon irony, the international media is calling on the new Philippine President Bongbong Marcos to revoke those rulings. Marcos is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who ruled over the Philippines for 20 years, 1965 to 1985. When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, the first thing he did was to seize control of the media, once the boldest and most aggressive free press in Asia.

"I continue to appeal to the incoming administration, work with journalists, we’re here to help you give a better future for the Philippines. We’re not your enemies," said Ressa.

In a letter to the new president, Jodie Ginsberg, president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote:

"To start with, your administration should end the relentless persecution of journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa, a global beacon of press freedom. CPJ calls on your government to immediately drop all pending charges against Ressa, her colleagues, and the Rappler media group. These cases range from trumped-up tax charges to cyber libel accusations that threaten to shutter Rappler and carry potential prison penalties for those charged ...

"As the Philippines’ newly elected leader, you have the mandate to reassert your country’s damaged democratic credentials by forthrightly promoting and protecting press freedom. We urge you to seize this important moment and state clearly from the outset that journalists will be free to report without fear of reprisal, intimidation, or imprisonment during your tenure."

June 30 "is a new day in the Philippines with a new Administration coming to office and we call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to quickly reverse the decisions to shutter Rappler and allow the newsroom and its journalists to operate unimpeded," wrote Jen Judson, president of the National Press Club and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute,

"We view this as an opportunity for the new Marcos government to make a good faith demonstration of its support for a free and secure democratic Philippines, of which a robust and independent press is a vital cornerstone. We look forward to a return to the rule of law in the Philippines as it relates to Rappler. We expect this will be the case. We stand by Maria Ressa," concluded their joint appeal.

Since Duterte took office six years ago, Rappler and Ressa have faced harassment at hands of Philippine authorities under President Duterte. The harassment and intimidation campaign took the form of online attacks, arrests and legal charges. Ressa has also been slapped with a series of civil and criminal cases, including charges of tax evasion, three cyber libel cases and violations of foreign ownership rules. At one point, Ressa faced up to 100 years in prison cumulatively in various cases.

Speaking on the issue, International Press Institute Deputy Director Scott Griffen said, “The Philippines’ decision to shut down Rappler is a flagrant attempt to silence a critical media outlet and a serious violation of press freedom, which has rapidly eroded under the Duterte administration.”

IPI executive board chair Khadija Patel said, “This decision is deplorable and is testimony to the legacy of an administration that has actively impeded press freedom throughout. As we call for this order to be overturned, we also call on the newly elected president to uphold the rule of law when it comes to news media in the country and stop harassment of critical journalists.”

While its actions against Rappler and Ressa are the highest profile incidents, Duterte has had a running war against the media during his entire time in office.

Duterte shut down the biggest and most influential television network ABS-CBN in 2020. Although, the independent network continues to broadcast online, the loss of its operating franchise has decimated its national television audience.

"We also urge your government to cease the “red-tagging” of journalists, the wrongful and dangerous labeling of reporters as supporters of the banned communist insurgency," urged the CPJ. "Duterte’s administration made red-tagging de facto government policy and employed the practice to threaten, harass, and jail journalists. Red-tagging is especially dangerous considering the Philippine military’s alleged role in extrajudicial killings and torture of accused communists.

The Philippines is also one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work, notes the CPJ. "More broadly, we implore your government to prioritize ending the enduring culture of impunity in the killing of Filipino journalists," based on CPJ’s latest Impunity Index, a quantitative measure of the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population.

As Rappler's case is appealed in the Philippines' courts, the news site continues to operate. "It's - our only defense as a journalist is to actually shine the light," the New Jersey-raised Ressa told NPR. 

"So when you get, like, what is equivalent of a shutdown order, do you stay quiet about it and wait, or do you tell people about it, you tell your community about it? We chose to tell our community, and we are working business as usual. We covered the inauguration of President Marcos, and we continue to do our jobs."

Ressa, meanwhile, is out on bail as she awaits the new Marcos regime's position on a free press.

"Who knows what the new administration will do?" Ressa told Axios editor-in-chief Sara Kehaulani Goo. "If the rule of law wins, these cases (against me and Rappler) will be thrown out. I look forward to a new administration and their upgrading of the rule of law." 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Maria Ressa blasts social media as she receives Nobel Peace Prize

Maria Ressa warned against the role of unfettered social media in spreading lies and division.

The crucial role of journalism in a free democratic society was the message of  the two journalists -- Maria Ressa and Dmetry Murotov -- who received the Nobel Peace Prize Friday.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money," said Filipina American Ressa as she received the coveted award.

She accused U.S. social media giants like Facebook of spreading a "flood of toxic sludge" sowing division and hate through their platforms.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem," said Ressa, the first Filipino American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The 58-year old co-founder the online news outlet Rappler in the Philippines has long been a vocal critic of social media that she accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of weaponizing by hiring trolls to spread lies and half-truths against her and Rappler because of their criticism of Duterte's extrajudicial was on drugs that has fostered vigilante violence throughout the Philippines.

READ or WATCH Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize speech.

"The attacks against us in Rappler began five years ago when we demanded an end to impunity on two fronts: Duterte's drug war and Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook," she said.

“These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts, biased against journalists,” she said. “They are — by design — dividing us and radicalizing us.”

The 2020 elections in the U.S. and the upcoming Presidential election in the Philippines in 2022 are war zones with democracy in the two countries at stake, she has warned earlier.

"You have to know what values you are fighting for, and you have to draw the lines early -- but if you haven't done so, do it now: where this side you're good, and this side, you're evil," she told her Nebel audience in Oslo, Norway. "Some governments may be lost causes, and if you're working in tech, I'm talking to you: How can you have election integrity if you don't have integrity of facts?"

The social network has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for how its algorithms promote content. CEOs and representatives of Facebook, Twitter and other media giants have been grilled by Congressional committees for their role in spreading false information. U.S. civil rights organizations have tried to convince Facebook leadership that it must address the use of its platform to spread voter disinformation, to intimidate and incite hate against vulnerable populations, and to otherwise undermine democracy. 

Ressa and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a young girl became an American citizen in 1973. She worked for CNN before founding Rappler.

Murotov, 60, is the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s most outspoken national newspaper, for more than 25 years. He warned about the escalation of war rhetoric and the rise of authoritative leaders.

“The world has fallen out of love with democracy,” Muratov said in his acceptance  speech. “The world has become disappointed with the elites in power. The world has begun to turn to dictatorship.”

Asian American journalists applaud Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize

Beth Frondoso | Rappler

Filipino American Maria Ressa returned to the Philippines as the CNN bureau chief.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 is being awarded to Filiipino American journalist Maria Ressa and Russia's Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.

Ressa and Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions, says the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Ressa is the first Filipino to win a Nobel Prize. Born in the Philippines, Ressa immigrated to the U.S. in 1973 at the age of 10 with her mother. Her  family settled in New Jersey. She graduated cum laude from Princeton with a degree in English.

"Maria is an inspiration to journalists across the globe, and of every generation,” said Michelle Ye Hee Lee, president of the Asian American Journalists Association.

“The AAJA community is beyond proud and encouraged that her pioneering leadership in journalism and in championing press freedom, and the role that press freedom plays in holding governments accountable to the people they serve, have been recognized by the Nobel committee," said Lee. 

Her campaign to protect press freedom in the Philippines has garnered worldwide attention. She was named one of Time magazine's Person's of the Year for 2018 and last May was named the 2021 laureate of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

Ressa called the prize “a global recognition of the journalist’s role in repairing, fixing our broken world,” and said “it’s never been as hard to be a journalist as it is today.”

The last time the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists was in 1935 when Carl von Ossietzky won it for revealing Germany's secret post-war rearmament program.

“The AAJA community is beyond proud and encouraged that her pioneering leadership in journalism and in championing press freedom, and the role that press freedom plays in holding governments accountable to the people they serve, have been recognized by the Nobel committee. Maria is an inspiration to journalists across the globe, and of every generation,” said Michelle Ye Hee Lee, president of AAJA.

An AAJA-Asia statement expressed, “We thank the Nobel Prize committee for shining a light on freedom of expression and the role of journalists, particularly at a time when nearly all of the countries in Southeast Asia have fallen to the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index.”

The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

In selecting Ressa to share the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee issued the following statement:

Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines. In 2012, she co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism, which she still heads. 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. The number of deaths is so high that the campaign resembles a war waged against the country’s own population. Ms Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse.

“This relentless campaign of harassment and intimidation against me and my fellow journalists in the Philippines is a stark example of a global trend,” the 58-year old Ressa told The Associated Press.

Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda. The Norwegian Nobel Committee is convinced that freedom of expression and freedom of information help to ensure an informed public, notes the Nobel committee. These rights are crucial prerequisites for democracy and protect against war and conflict. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov is intended to underscore the importance of protecting and defending these fundamental rights.

Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time. This year’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize is therefore firmly anchored in the provisions of Alfred Nobel’s will, says the Nobel committee.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, described Ressa and co-winner Dmitriy Muratov as “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”

For years, ahead of Congressionial hearings held last week that heard the testimony of a former Facebook employee who accused the social media platform of favored  divisiveness and agry discourse to encourage "hits," which helps the company's profits. Ressa accused social media giants like Facebook as a serious threat to democracy,  saying “they actually prioritized the spread of lies laced with anger and hate over facts.”

“I didn’t think that what we are going through would get that attention. But the fact that it did also shows you how important the battles we face are, right?” she said. “This is going to be what our elections are going to be like next year. It is a battle for facts. When you’re in a battle for facts, journalism is activism.”

AAJA expresses gratitude to Maria for inspiring AAPI journalists over the years. In 2019, Maria Ressa was the keynote speaker for AAJA’s annual convention gala dinner. Speaking on misinformation, “This is the battle of our generation. This battle for truth. A lie told a million times becomes a fact,” Ressa said.

"AAJA has stood by Ressa during her arrest and conviction on cyber libel charges, and we continue to proudly support her, fellow awardee Dmitriy Andreyvich Muratov, and all journalists who do the brave work of bringing the truth to their communities," the AAJA stated.

“As the first Filipina to win the Nobel Peace Prize and first woman to be honored this year (and only 18th woman in history), Maria is making and will continue to make history. We are grateful for her example and her constant support and encouragement throughout the years as AAJA continues to train up future generations of journalists as public servants,” said Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, executive director of AAJA.

Crusading Filipino American journalist nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Maria Ressa, advocate for press freedom.

A Filipino American crusader for press freedom was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

Maria Ressa, the Chief Executive Officer of Rappler, a Philippine-based website, was nominated for the Nobel by a Norwegian politician and opposition Labour party leader Jonas Gahr Støre.

Støre said she nominated Ressa along with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders for the prize because the work they do to protect freedom of the press.

“In today's world, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists are the two foremost organizations for promoting media freedom and protecting journalists. A Nobel Peace Prize for these organizations will be a recognition of the work they do, and it will recognize the thousands of journalists who report on conflicts,” Støre said in a statement.

In Ressa's case, Støre added, “She is thus both a symbol and a representative of thousands of journalists around the world. The nomination fulfills key aspects of what is emphasized as peace-promoting in Alfred Nobel's will. A free and independent press can inform about and help to limit and stop a development that leads to armed conflict and war.”

Ressa and the online news site Rappler that she co-founded in 2012, have been under attack by the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for articles critical of some of his policies, especially the bloody war on drugs that gave carte blanche for vigilante groups and law enforcement to employ extra-judicial killings.

Upon hearing of the nomination, Ressa tweeted: "10 criminal charges, 10 arrest warrants in less than 2 years. Yup. #JournalismIsNotACrime #HoldTheLine oh, this year, I hit 35 years in journalism #TrackRecord." 

Ressa was brought to the U.S. at the age of ten by her mother and step-father, whose last name she adopted. She graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude with a major in English.

Time magazine named her one of the magazine's "Persons of the Year" in 2018 for her efforts against the use of misinformation and lies to twist minds against the trute and trying to get social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to monitor its websites against trollers and fake news.