Maria Ressa, Duterte & the Fight for the Free Press

FRONTLINE: Film Audio Track | PBS

FRONTLINE

Pbs, Tv & Film, Wgbh, Documentaries, Frontline

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Days before an expected verdict in her trial, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa speaks out about reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war — and then becoming a high-profile target of his government’s crackdown on the press. As she faces potential prison time on cyber libel charges, the co-founder and CEO of the independent Philippine news site Rappler tells FRONTLINE how she’s preparing, discusses her reporting on Duterte, and says that her conviction about what she does is undaunted: “All it has done is to make us stronger in our intent to continue to hold government to account…” For more on Duterte’s drug war, watch FRONTLINE’s On the President’s Orders. And for more from Ressa, read FRONTLINE’s interview with her for The Facebook Dilemma, in which she discusses her reporting on how Duterte weaponized the platform to target his critics and spread disinformation. Plus: Stay tuned for the forthcoming documentary A Thousand Cuts, featuring Ressa’s story, which will see a summer theatrical release and a fall FRONTLINE broadcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So no qualms about killing killers?
0:03.0	Of course. I must admit that they have killed three months early on. I killed about three people.
0:14.0	That's journalist Maria Reza interviewing Rodrigo de Tarede back in 2015 before he became president of the Philippines.
0:23.0	She's been at the forefront of covering de Tarede and his brutal crackdown on drugs. And she's now facing criminal libel charges related to her work.
0:32.0	So now of course people still speculate that there is a possibility you would still run for president, that it's possible to replace them.
0:40.0	Well they said that I am disqualified, but I hope I am disqualified.
0:43.0	I'm telling the Filipino people, I told you to avoid me, work or go, it's gonna be bloody.
0:51.0	Maria has become one of the most prominent journalists in the world. We first spoke to her for our documentary The Facebook Diploma back in 2018.
1:00.0	And we're featuring her in an upcoming film by director Ramona Diaz, a thousand cuts.
1:06.0	I got the chance to talk to Maria from her home in the Philippines where she's awaiting a verdict in her case, which is expected on Monday.
1:13.0	I'm Rainy Aronson, executive producer of Frontline, and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:21.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism, and by the WGBH Catalyst Fund.
1:29.0	Support for the Frontline Dispatch also comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
1:34.0	Early detection is key to catching and treating many cancers. You can learn more about the innovative programs at massgeneral.org slash cancer.
1:43.0	Massgeneral Cancer Center, every day amazing.
1:48.0	Maria, I know I'm talking to you from the Philippines. Thank you for joining us this morning.
1:53.0	Thanks for having me.
1:55.0	So tell me a little bit about your life right now. What's it like right at this moment?
1:59.0	Oh my gosh.
2:01.0	It's a tough question because I vacillate. I mean, it shifts emotion to emotion.
2:08.0	There's a lot of anger. I realized how angry I was. It's been four years of attacks that we've weathered.
2:15.0	There's sometimes hope, you know, because I see our young, actually young Filipinos really coming back up.
	...

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