Maria Ressa is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler, 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 newest book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator will be released in November 2022.
The crowd was mesmerized. Speechless, until one guest asked how she had hope. Maria's energy and positivity allows her to deliver the message we all so desperately need to hear in a way we can truly understand it and reflect on it. Maria was warm and open, curious about our group and completely engaging. Only we as individuals can solve the problem of facts: around our dinner tables and in our communities, by listening to people firsthand.
Your keynote created goosebumps—that truly was a very special DLD moment. We really need role models like you to create awareness about what's going on in our world and there's still so much work to do to ensure free speech and fight fake news.
Thank you for joining us as a plenary speaker at the 2021 Skoll World Forum and for your thoughtful preparation in developing your keynote. The Closing Plenary aired this morning to a community of 1000+ and the admiration for you and your work was off the charts.
Keywords: Crisis Management, Digital Media, Journalism, Leadership, Civil Rights, Media, Social Media, International Affairs, Politics, Corporate Governance, Technology, Nobel Prize, Author