Co-founder and CEO of Rappler; Journalist; Author; Freedom Advocate.; 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Imagine staring down arrest for telling the truth. That’s the reality Maria Ressa, a 36-year journalism veteran, faced as co-founder of Rappler, the Philippines’ leading digital news site fighting for press freedom. Her relentless pursuit of truth earned her the Nobel Peace Prize, recognition as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and a place among the world’s most influential women. Now, this fearless journalist ignites audiences, revealing how technology breeds disinformation and threatens democracy.
Maria Ressa’s Full Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
Maria Ressa delivers Woodrow Wilson Award Lecture at Princeton Alumni Day
A Conversation with Maria Ressa
Social media companies have become the dominant source of news and information. The distributors of news and information gain power. To grow and increase power, the platforms require continuously increasing viewers which drives advertising revenue.
Social media platforms have discovered that pushing viewers to the extreme left or right increases engagement which increases ad revenue. To achieve this, the platforms develop algorithms designed to spread lies, laced with hate and anger.
Technology, once heralded as an enabler, is now the destroyer. How can we re-orient social media platforms to bring us together rather than divide us?
In this talk, Maria explains how we went off the rails but, more importantly, how we can right the train.
In this talk, Maria discusses how today’s style of leadership, us against them, sexism, and misogyny has given everyone to be their worst selves in many ways.
Democracies rely on elections but as we’ve been manipulated before the elections, where’s the freedom of will? Without free will, we are simply carrying out the wishes of the manipulators. How do we protect democracy when surrounded by manipulation?
Maria describes the four-layer pyramid that was successfully executed in the most recent Philippines election:
This is the time to act. Don’t bury your head in the sand. This is an existential moment and we either fight for our democracy or we lose our rights.
“We will know whether democracy lives or dies by the end of 2024.“ —Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler.com, an online news organization in the Philippines. Maria’s courage and work on disinformation and ‘fake news’ culminated in her being awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Her numerous awards include being named Time’s 2018 Person of the Year and listed among its 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and its 100 most influential women of the century. She was also among BBC’s 100 Women 2019, and Prospect Magazine‘s world’s top 50 thinkers 2019.
Energetic and eloquent, Maria advises organizations and corporations on corporate governance, values, and strategy. Her experience as a journalist, a crisis manager, and an entrepreneur in the digital world makes her a sought-after keynote speaker and panelist.
A journalist for over 36 years, Ressa was CNN’s bureau chief in Manila, before opening and running its Jakarta bureau, where she became CNN’s lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism. In 2005, she headed the largest news organization in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, managing more than 1,000 journalists. In 2012, she co-founded Rappler, an online news platform with an ethos of a small tech start-up, starting with a team of 12 reporters and developers. Within a year and a half, it became the Philippines’ 3rd top digital news site and remains the top digital-only news site.
In 2019, the Philippine government filed 10 arrest warrants against Maria, followed by her arrests on multiple trumped-up charges. She was convicted of cyber-libel in June 2020 for a story she didn’t write, edit, or supervise at a time when the law she allegedly violated didn’t exist. She is out on bail pending her appeal but true to form, Ressa, vows to keep fighting.
Maria was featured in the 2020 documentary A Thousand Cuts, which profiles her fearless reporting on the abuses of Duterte’s presidency, while also illustrating social media’s capacity to deceive and entrench political power.
Maria is co-chair of the International Fund for Public Interest Media, part of the founding group of The Real Facebook Oversight Board – composed of 25 academics, journalists, and activists demanding reforms to protect the public sphere. She is one of 10 experts named by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres to his inaugural Internet Governance Forum Leadership Panel.
Maria authored Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook. Her latest book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator was released in November 2022.
We've never experienced something more meaningful, raw, thought-provoking as the session with Maria Ressa. She is a very rare combination of grit, passion, purpose, charm, and conviction. She is also a gentle force to reckon with, and is not only a delight to speak to, but expects to be challenged in a conversation. Only someone that open, intelligent, considered, and enlightened can do that. I would bring Maria in again in a heartbeat.
Publicis Communications
Her remarks were insightful, engaging and inspiring. She explained in a lively and interesting way a very complex and sophisticated story, drawing on current events and data. A real feast for the brain and the heart.
Massey Hall
Maria was absolutely terrific. I have received messages of praise for her from viewers around the world who are sharing the program. I personally believe every citizen of the world should hear what Maria said.
Easte-West Center
