THE PRICE FOR STANDING UP: THE JOURNey OF THE FIRST FILIPINO NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE

The most vital wheel of democracy is the freedom of the press, for it is an efficient instrument for making people informed about the facts and insights on issues, concerns of critical importance. Hence, without this freedom, ignorance and distortion will grow in magnitudes.

 Filipino-American journalist and author Maria Angelita Ressa is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler and has two decades of experience as a CNN lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia. Just recently, Ressa became the first Filipino Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She won the Prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. Ressa had spoken to FRANCE 24 live from Manila, expressing her Nobel Prize triumph as a "courageous fight for freedom of expression" in the Philippines, as described by the Nobel committee. "It is more dangerous, it requires more sacrifices, just to do what journalists have always done," she explained.

Ressa was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study political theater at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she also served as a faculty member and taught numerous journalism classes. She has also taught Princeton University classes on Southeast Asian politics and the press, as well as broadcast journalism at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Ressa's first job was at the government television station PTV-4. In 1987, she co-founded independent production company Probe while still serving as CNN's Manila bureau chief, she also became the head of CNN's Jakarta bureau. She specialized in uncovering terrorist networks as CNN's chief investigative reporter in Asia. Ressa led ABS-CBN's news division while also contributing to CNN and The Wall Street Journal. Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Newest Qaeda's Center (2003) and From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism (2007) are her two books about the emergence of terrorism in Southeast Asia. 

Ressa founded Rappler, an online news service, with three other female founders and a small crew of 12 journalists and technologists in 2012. The site went on to become one of the Philippines' first multimedia news websites and a prominent news platform, winning multiple local and international accolades. She is the news website's Executive Editor and Chief Executive Officer.

But things weren’t always looking up for Ressa. Throughout her career as a journalist, she has faced challenges. Due to allegations that Rappler published a fraudulent news item, she was convicted of cyber libel, subjecting her to up to six years in prison, but allowed to be temporarily released through bail. The news reports that Wilfredo Kenga, a businessman, lent a sport utility vehicle to a top judge, and gave various sources on how he was tied to illegal drugs, human trafficking, and murder, Another case filed against her was also cyber libel that was filed by a college professor because of allegations that he was bribed by a student in exchange for good grades although this was dismissed recently as the complainant withdrew the case. 

As of this writing, there are seven active cases against Ressa and Rappler. These include the appeals for the Securities and Exchange Commission's closure order against Rappler in January 2018, appeals for the June 2020 conviction of Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. for cyber libel on Wilfredo Keng’s case, four consolidated tax cases, and a tax case. Amid all these legal cases is also her arduous battle with disinformation and propaganda defacing her and her affiliates. But despite all these, she still has vowed to continue the work of being a journalist.

On the brighter side, Ressa still had accomplished some achievements aside from being a Nobel laureate. She was also bestowed with the Golden Pen of Freedom Award (2018), and the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (2021). She was also TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year 2018.

The Nobel Peace Prize award has brought attention to the several social, political, and ethical battles of the world, and the battle of journalists and activists to defend press freedom is one of them. The press has been entrusted with the task of analyzing and balancing the administration and government. As a watchdog, the press is always the first to speak out against injustices and evils of any kind.

"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 in an interview with CNN Business. "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," she added.

Journalists are the voice of the people, but more than this is that they are married to the truth. Once the press is prevented from doing its job, the perils of annihilating the truth will be inevitable, and the rest of society will remain voiceless, misinformed, manipulated, and powerless. With this, press freedom is critical to the proper administration of democracy, now more than ever. The breeding of social consciousness will be integral to the moral survival of all. For democracies to flourish, those in power must always be kept on their toes, for the truth can never wither so long as there are still those fighting for it.