Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa
Born	Maria Angelita Delfin Aycardo 2 10, 1963
Birthplace	Manila, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino, American
Occupation	Journalist, author, media executive, academic
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Rappler; Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2021)
Education	Princeton University (B.A.); University of the Philippines Diliman (M.A.)
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize (2021), Time Person of the Year (2018), Golden Pen of Freedom

Maria Angelita Ressa (Template:Lang [ˈɾesa]; née Delfin Aycardo; born October 2, 1963) is a Filipino-American journalist, author, and media executive who has spent more than three decades reporting on and from Southeast Asia. She is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Rappler, a Manila-based digital media company specializing in investigative journalism, and previously worked for nearly two decades as a lead investigative reporter and bureau chief for CNN. In 2021, Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," making her the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate from the Philippines and the first working journalist to receive the honor in decades. Her career has been defined by investigative reporting on terrorism, disinformation, and government abuse, and she has become a prominent figure in the global defense of press freedom. Ressa's legal battles with Philippine authorities under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte—including a cyberlibel conviction that drew international condemnation—placed her at the center of a worldwide debate about the relationship between governments, technology platforms, and the free press.

Early Life

Maria Ressa was born Maria Angelita Delfin Aycardo on October 2, 1963, in Manila, Philippines. Her early childhood was spent in the Philippines before her family emigrated to the United States. She was raised in Toms River, New Jersey, where she grew up as part of the Filipino-American diaspora community.

Ressa has spoken publicly about the formative influence of growing up between two cultures. In interviews, she has described her path into journalism as something she "fell into" rather than a deliberate career plan, noting that her early experiences navigating different cultural identities contributed to her interest in storytelling and investigation. Her upbringing in the United States provided her with dual Filipino and American citizenship, a status that would later become significant during her legal battles in the Philippines, when authorities scrutinized her nationality in connection with foreign ownership regulations governing Philippine media companies.

The experience of straddling two nations—the Philippines, with its complex political landscape and history of authoritarian governance, and the United States, with its constitutional protections for the press—would inform much of Ressa's later work on democratic institutions and the role of journalism in holding power to account.

Education

Ressa attended Princeton University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and theater. She subsequently pursued graduate studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she received a Master of Arts degree, studying government while on a Fulbright Fellowship. Her academic training in both the humanities and political science provided a foundation for her career in investigative journalism, particularly her later focus on governance, security, and information ecosystems in Southeast Asia.

Ressa has maintained connections to academia throughout her career. As of 2023, she holds the position of Professor of Professional Practice in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and has served as a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics.

Career

CNN (1987–2005)

Ressa began her journalism career in the Philippines before joining CNN, where she would spend nearly two decades as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia. During her tenure at the network, she served as CNN's bureau chief in Manila and later in Jakarta, Indonesia, covering major stories across the region during a period of significant political upheaval, including the fall of authoritarian regimes and the rise of democratic movements in several Southeast Asian nations.

Her reporting at CNN focused extensively on terrorism in Southeast Asia, particularly the operations of groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Ressa's expertise on terrorist networks in the region became especially relevant to global security discussions. She investigated the links between Southeast Asian militant groups and the broader al-Qaeda network, producing reporting that drew attention to the region as a significant front in counterterrorism efforts. This work led to a book on the Asian terrorism threat, further establishing her as an authority on security issues in the region.

ABS-CBN News

After leaving CNN, Ressa headed the news and current affairs division of ABS-CBN, one of the Philippines' largest broadcast networks. In this role, she oversaw the editorial direction of the network's news operations. Her departure from ABS-CBN was publicly addressed in a letter she wrote to the news and current affairs team, reflecting on her experiences and the state of Philippine journalism.

Founding of Rappler

In 2012, Ressa co-founded Rappler, a Manila-based online news organization that would become one of the Philippines' leading digital media platforms for investigative journalism. The name "Rappler" is a portmanteau of "rap" (to discuss) and "ripple" (to make waves), reflecting the site's mission to use technology and community engagement to advance civic discourse and accountability journalism.

Under Ressa's leadership as CEO, Rappler developed a reputation for rigorous investigative reporting, particularly on issues of governance, corruption, human rights, and the growing influence of disinformation on social media platforms. The organization became an early innovator in using data journalism and social media analytics to track the spread of online disinformation, work that would prove prescient as the global conversation about "fake news" and information manipulation intensified in the latter half of the 2010s.

Rappler's critical coverage of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, particularly its reporting on the government's controversial war on drugs and the use of state-sponsored social media propaganda, placed the outlet—and Ressa personally—at the center of an escalating confrontation between the Philippine government and the independent press.

Legal Battles Under the Duterte Administration

Beginning in 2018, Ressa and Rappler faced a series of legal challenges from Philippine government authorities that press freedom organizations and the international community characterized as an attempt to silence critical journalism.

In January 2018, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's license to operate, citing alleged violations of constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of media companies. The case centered on an investment from the Omidyar Network, which Philippine authorities argued constituted foreign control over the news organization. Rappler and Ressa denied the allegations, maintaining that the investment did not confer any editorial influence or ownership stake.

Also in January 2018, the National Bureau of Investigation filed an online libel complaint against Ressa in connection with a 2012 Rappler article concerning businessman Wilfredo Keng. In November 2018, the Philippine Department of Justice filed tax evasion charges against Ressa and Rappler, which the news organization described as "harassment" with "no legal basis."

On February 13, 2019, Ressa was arrested by Philippine authorities on cyberlibel charges related to the Keng article. She was subsequently released on bail. The arrest drew condemnation from press freedom organizations, human rights groups, and foreign governments, who viewed it as part of a broader pattern of retaliation against independent journalism under the Duterte administration.

On June 15, 2020, a Manila court found Ressa guilty of cyberlibel under the Philippines' Anti-Cybercrime Prevention Act. The conviction carried a potential prison sentence and drew immediate international condemnation. Human rights organizations, journalist advocacy groups, and foreign government officials characterized the verdict as an attack on press freedom and a signal of the deteriorating state of democratic institutions in the Philippines. The Philippine presidential palace, for its part, denied that the case constituted media censorship.

In June 2025, a Filipino court acquitted Ressa and five Rappler associates in the foreign ownership case, a development welcomed by the Hold the Line Coalition, a group of press freedom organizations that had been monitoring the cases. The Committee to Protect Journalists and other members of the coalition called for the closure of all remaining legal cases against Ressa.

Throughout her legal battles, Ressa continued to lead Rappler's operations and to speak publicly about the threats to press freedom posed by the intersection of authoritarian governance and social media disinformation. She characterized the legal cases against her as part of a strategy of "weaponizing the law" against critical journalism, a tactic she described as being employed by governments around the world.

Advocacy on Disinformation and Information Integrity

In addition to her work at Rappler, Ressa has become one of the most prominent global voices on the subjects of online disinformation, information integrity, and the role of technology platforms in undermining democratic discourse. She is one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

Ressa has argued that social media platforms, through their algorithmic amplification of divisive and false content, have created what she has described as an "Information Armageddon," in which lies spread faster than truth and undermine the foundations of democratic society. At the 2025 Global Investigative Journalism Conference, she delivered a keynote address calling for "radical collaboration" among journalists, technologists, and civil society organizations to combat disinformation and preserve press freedom.

In a 2025 address at the Athens Democracy Forum, Ressa described the battle for information integrity as "the mother of all battles," arguing that the collapse of shared factual reality poses an existential threat to democratic governance worldwide. She drew on the experience of the Philippines, where she said the erosion of free press preceded broader democratic backsliding, as a cautionary example for other nations.

Her work at the National Democratic Institute and participation in events exploring the global threat of disinformation have further cemented her position in international policy discussions on media, technology, and democracy.

Academic Career

Ressa holds the position of Professor of Professional Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she has taught since the early 2020s. Since fall 2023, she has served as a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics, contributing to the university's work on the intersection of media, technology, and governance.

Recognition

Ressa has received numerous awards and honors for her journalism and advocacy for press freedom.

In 2018, she was named one of Time magazine's Persons of the Year, as part of a group of journalists recognized as "The Guardians" for their work combatting fake news and defending the free press. The other journalists honored included Jamal Khashoggi, the staff of The Capital Gazette, and Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

In 2021, Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Ressa was the first Filipino to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the first working journalist to receive the honor in more than eight decades.

She has received the Golden Pen of Freedom award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, one of the international press industry's most significant honors.

In the Philippines, Ressa received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) Star Awards in 2015 for her contributions to broadcasting.

She has been recognized by various organizations as one of the most influential women in the Philippines and in global media. Kalibrr included her in a list of the most influential and powerful women leaders in the Philippines.

In 2012, she was named "Human of the Year" by SpinBusters, a Philippine media watchdog organization, for her contributions to journalism and public discourse.

Legacy

Maria Ressa's career and legal battles have made her one of the most recognizable figures in the global press freedom movement. Her experience at Rappler—facing government prosecution, online harassment campaigns, and the threat of imprisonment while continuing to publish investigative journalism—has been cited by press freedom organizations as a defining case study in the challenges facing independent journalism under authoritarian-leaning governments in the 21st century.

Ressa's work documenting the mechanics of social media disinformation in the Philippines preceded and, in many respects, anticipated the broader global reckoning with the role of technology platforms in democratic processes. Her reporting on state-sponsored troll networks and coordinated disinformation campaigns in the Philippines provided an early blueprint for understanding similar phenomena in other countries, including during election cycles in the United States, Brazil, and across Europe.

The legal cases against Ressa and Rappler prompted the formation of the Hold the Line Coalition, a broad alliance of press freedom organizations—including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Center for Journalists—that monitored the proceedings and advocated for the charges to be dropped. The coalition's work represented an unusually coordinated international response to legal threats against a single journalist and news organization, reflecting the global significance attributed to Ressa's case.

Her call for "radical collaboration" among journalists, technologists, and civil society to combat disinformation has influenced discussions at major international forums, including the Global Investigative Journalism Conference and the Athens Democracy Forum. Through her academic work at Columbia University, Ressa has also contributed to training the next generation of journalists and policy professionals working at the intersection of media, technology, and governance.

As Ressa herself articulated at the Athens Democracy Forum in 2025, the struggle for information integrity remains ongoing, and her career illustrates both the vulnerabilities and the resilience of independent journalism in an era of rising authoritarianism and technological disruption.