Maria Ressa

“If you want to rip the heart out of a democracy, you go after the facts. That's what modern authoritarians do. You lie. All the time. Then, you say it's your opponents and the journalists who lie.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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'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.”

“Without facts you can't have truth.”

“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.”

“Frankly, it's a bit shocking to me the lengths government will go to to let little Rappler feel its power.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Always make the choice to learn. What Princeton taught me was whatever mess you are studying, pull a thread with great persistence 'til you have clarity of thought. Princeton taught me how to solve a problem. How to think - that's what we pull out of this place.”

“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.”

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

“If the social media platforms don't take the gatekeeping seriously they will kill the public sphere. If we don't get this right in 2020 you can open a decade or longer of a descent into fascism. And it will be global because platforms are global.”

“My heroes were always a combination of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock. You have to be ruled by logic, but if you're only ruled by logic and you don't touch your emotions, you will make the wrong instinctive call.”

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

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

“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.”