1. Maria Ressa previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN.
34 Facts About Maria Ressa
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Maria Ressa is a Professor of Professional Practice in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and has been a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia's new Institute of Global Politics since fall of 2023.
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Maria Ressa was born in Manila and raised in Toms River, New Jersey.
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Maria Ressa was included in Time Person of the Year 2018 issue featuring a collection of journalists from around the world actively combatting fake news.
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Maria Ressa is one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.
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Maria Ressa grew up speaking only Tagalog and studied at St Scholastica's College in Manila.
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Subsequently, her mother married an Italian-American man named Peter Ames Maria Ressa and returned to the Philippines.
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Maria Ressa brought both of her children to New Jersey when Ressa was 10 years old.
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Maria Ressa was adopted by her stepfather and she took his last name.
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Maria Ressa's 77-page-long senior thesis titled "Sagittarius" was an allegorical play about Philippine politics.
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Maria Ressa was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study political theater at the University of the Philippines Diliman where she taught several journalism courses as a faculty member.
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Maria Ressa then co-founded independent production company Probe in 1987, and simultaneously served as CNN's bureau chief in Manila until 1995.
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Maria Ressa then ran CNN's Jakarta bureau from 1995 to 2005.
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Maria Ressa became an author-in-residence at the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research of Nanyang Technological University's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
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From 2004, Maria Ressa headed the news division of ABS-CBN, while writing for CNN, and The Wall Street Journal.
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Speculations were rife that this, among other reasons, finally led to Maria Ressa leaving the company in 2010, after deciding not to renew her contract.
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Maria Ressa is a fellow at the Initiative on the Digital Economy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a 2021 Joan Shorenstein Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School.
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Maria Ressa has taught courses in politics and the press in Southeast Asia for Princeton University, and broadcast journalism for the University of the Philippines Diliman.
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Maria Ressa established the online news site Rappler in 2012 along with three other female founders and with a small team of 12 journalists and developers.
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Maria Ressa serves as the Executive Editor and Chief Executive Officer of the news website.
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On September 25,2020, Maria Ressa joined the 25-member Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent watchdog group established to provide public commentary on Facebook's content moderation policies and role in civic life.
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Maria Ressa was among the ten members of the leadership panel appointed in August 2022 in support of the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum, an annual discussion focusing on addressing issues concerning the internet.
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Maria Ressa first interviewed Rodrigo Duterte, the 16th president of the Philippines, in the 1980s when he was mayor of Davao.
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Maria Ressa again interviewed him in 2015 during his presidential election campaign, where he confessed to killing three people when he was mayor.
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Maria Ressa has denied wrongdoing, originally stating that the foreign money was "donated" to its managers, later stating the investments were in the form of securities.
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The Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue, after a study of Maria Ressa's explanation, ruled that Rappler's issuance of securities-generated capital gains was taxable.
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In contrast, the official spokesperson for the Malacanang Palace denied any government involvement in the arrest, asserting that the lawsuit against Maria Ressa was set forth by a private individual, the plaintiff Wilfredo Keng.
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Maria Ressa warned that her conviction could augur the end of freedom of the press in the Philippines.
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Maria Ressa was acquitted of a fifth tax evasion case in September 2023.
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On October 8,2021, Maria Ressa was officially announced as the recipient of the prize alongside Dmitry Muratov of the Russian Federation.
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Maria Ressa cofounded Rappler in 2012 and leads it as CEO.
32.
An earlier comment Maria Ressa made about "money and power" was criticized by a Harvard Rabbi.
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In October 2024, Maria Ressa viewed the 2024 United States elections as a tipping point in the fight for democracy, pointing out that Big Tech sided with autocrats and dictators.
34.
Maria Ressa argued that the collective action of fact-based media would be essential for restoring trust in public institutions.