Top 33 Maria Ressa Quotes

The difference between Rappler and other newsgroups in the Philippines is that journalists control Rappler both editorially and commercially. We make decisions that are bad for business but protect the public sphere.

I always felt that I wasn’t as American as Americans and then I realised when I got back to the Philippines that I was not Filipino.

What are the values that give meaning? What is the line that you will never cross, because on this side you’re good, and on this side you’re evil.

I don’t think we have wrapped our heads around how much technology has allowed the manipulation of individuals and democracies.

I’m not a criminal but I’ve been fingerprinted like a criminal.

A Princeton education sets you up for life: you have learned how to learn, and at a time when technology has changed everything, you will constantly have to learn.

Ninety-seven percent of Filipinos on the Internet are on Facebook. And according to Hootsuite or We Are Social, in January 2019, Filipinos spend the most time on the Internet, and they spend the most time on social media globally.

The social media platforms have taken over the distribution of news globally. They treat a lie the same way you would treat a fact.

Truth matters. Checks and balances matter.

Let me go back to a fundamental thing we all used to agree on: information is power. That’s why we became journalists in the first place.

How well we survive this time of creative destruction, it really is, depends on each of us, on each of us fighting our individual battles of integrity, for integrity.

I’m not a critic, I’m a journalist. I’m doing my job holding the government to account.

Journalism has a check-and-balance effect to those in power, and those in power submitted themselves to it.

I’m banking on the fact that there are still good people in government who will prevent this. I’ve been a journalist for more than 33 years, and at Rappler we refuse to change, I refuse to be bullied.

Enshrined in the Philippine constitution, which is similar to the United States, is the bill of rights: freedom of expression, freedom of the press. These are enshrined. And yet, freedom of the press has been curtailed.

After living a decade in Jakarta, I chose. I chose Manila, the Philippines, for better or worse.

Embrace your fear. Imagine what you’re most afraid of, touch it and hold it so that you rob it of its power.

I landed in New Jersey, where I could barely speak English, and I had to figure out what a short brown kid was going to do in this big white world.

I think that social media platforms and technology have been the accelerator for the push for the populist-style administrations in democratically elected presidents.

Then there is my country, the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte placed most of the country under a lockdown on the ides of March. Surrounded by men in uniform, he cut public transportation and talked about home quarantine, checkpoints and curfews, but said little about the virus or economic aid for those in need.

All through my life, when faced with a difficult decision, I always ask myself – where can I learn more. Make the choice to learn.

Any journalist who asked critical questions, anyone on social media who questioned about the extrajudicial killings was bombarded with abuse, threats of violence death threats from trolls and bots and these fake Facebook accounts.

I would give back every single award to be able to actually do our jobs as journalists without this kind of harassment.

If I lose these tax-evasion cases and others filed by the Philippine government, I could go to jail for 10 to 15 years.

In 14 months, my government, the Philippine 2 government, has filed 11 cases. I posted bail eight times, I’ve been arrested twice in five weeks, detained once, and the only thing I’ve done, my only crime is to be a journalist, to speak truth to power.

After I got arrested the Filipino government unshackled me. I knew first-hand how they violated my rights and I could speak about that from experience.

If you can make people believe lies are the facts, then you can control them.

To deal with COVID-19, countries like India, Brazil, Jordan and Thailand are cutting press freedom and freedom of expression. In nations like Israel, South Korea and the U.S., intrusive surveillance has been imposed to track the movement of citizens, at the expense of human rights.

Technology enabled Rappler’s fast growth starting in 2012, but we were also among the first victims when social media was weaponized in 2016.

Press freedom is the foundation of the rights of all Filipinos to the truth.

In a weird way, I’m a good target for the government, because I can push back.

All around the world, leaders are gaining more power. That’s what this pandemic demands: a coordinated whole-of-nation approach with a powerful conductor at its center.

I run Rappler, an online news site in the Philippines.