Maria Ressa

Journalist Maria Ressa is co-founder of Rappler.com and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in the Philippines, Maria grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Princeton University. She got her start in journalism during the People Power Revolution of 1986 and reported for CNN from 1987 to 2005, serving as bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta. She is the author of two books on terrorism in Southeast Asia and How to Stand up to a Dictator (2022). For her resilience in the face of repression, Maria was named one of Time magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year and one of the Most Influential Women of the Century. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize and the Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Rappler’s work on truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary, A Thousand Cuts (2020).