Our First Filipina Nobel Laureate

“Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time.” — The Norwegian Nobel Committee

I have known Maria since she was conferred the renowned The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) trophy in 2002 for her work as an international broadcast journalist, as she was then working as CNN’s Jakarta Bureau Chief and lead investigative reporter in Asia, specializing in investigating terrorist attacks. As part of the TOYM Committee tasked by JCI Philippines to thoroughly vet nominees back then, I was fascinated with her tenacious approach to ferret out the truth in every news report, often conducting beat checks to ensure the veracity of facts. Her seminal work, encapsulated in two of her published books, “Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account on Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia” (2003) and “10 Days, 10 Years: From Bin Laden to Facebook” (2012), details the riveting account of her indefatigable efforts that soon unearthed the spread of terrorism through a web of social networks which advanced the virulent ideology that powered terrorist attacks in recent years. Since then, I have had the great honor of inviting her as a resource speaker in a number of occasions where she has illuminated her audience with her passionate clarion calls in the War on Truth.

When she co-founded Rappler in 2012 with the simple vision of serving a Filipino population rapidly moving online, the news site quickly turned into a global bellwether for complimentary, largely accurate information at the vortex of two malign forces: one was the angry populism of an elected President with imperious inclinations, and the other, was social media.

On the morning of October 8, 2021, at 11:00 Central European Summer Time, Norwegian lawyer Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chairperson of the Nobel Committee walked at a press conference amid a throng of international reporters and announced this year’s winners for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021. Two journalists were honored for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” One of them is our very own Maria Ressa. In receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, she became only the 18th woman — and the first Filipino — to be selected for this prestigious award in its 120-year history.

In her quest to expose dozens of fake and spam-heavy accounts used to manipulate online discourse that many now mistake for reality, she was summarily subjected to multiple arrests — 10 as of last count — and wave-after-wave of online hate campaigns in a deliberate attempt to discredit her professional and personal integrity. Maria — The Fulbright Program scholar, who was also named a TIME magazine “Person of the Year” in 2018 for her crusading work against disinformation — has been a constant thorn in the side of the administration for sounding the alarm over what she describes as state-backed disinformation campaigns. This incredible distinction only serves to reaffirm how the global community honors her work in holding leaders to account, especially in an era of increasing authoritarianism and swirling misinformation.

Her work is far from over, however. With worldwide attention now focused on her, she will find it more challenging to navigate the murk between social media and despotism, calling us to #HoldTheLine at the peril of our freedoms… and even, at the risk of her own life. Congratulations, Maria! Let us all pursue the quest to “Fight for Facts!”