Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Fights for the Protection of Journalists

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Maria Ressa has spent the past decade advocating for the protection of journalists. Today, we return to our urgent conversation with the trailblazing author and activist.

We begin by unpacking the fragmenting effects of social media (6:08), how the internet gave power to authoritarian regimes around the globe (8:49), and Ressa’s five years uncovering those operations (9:20). Then, we walk through her early years: moving from the Philippines to suburban New Jersey at age ten (14:08), three lessons from childhood (16:52), and her discoveries at Princeton (22:10).

On the back-half, we discuss Ressa’s serendipitous entry to the newsroom (32:18), why she founded Rappler in 2012 (35:12), and her critical reportage on President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war (36:52), which led to her arrest by the Filipino government in 2019 (41:22). Now, she’s charted this fight in her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator (47:12). To close, we unpack her continuous pursuit of the truth (50:03), her recognition as a 2021 Nobel Laureate (52:37), and an ode to a lifelong friend (56:11).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Francisco, so welcome to the show. Today our conversation with journalist, activist, and author Maria Resa.
0:47.0	Maria was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her work at the Rappler, a Filipino news publication that she founded back in 2012.
0:57.6	In the intervening decade, Maria has become the face of the free press in the Philippines as she's worked to expose the abuses of power
1:05.4	and growing authoritarianism under former president Rodrigo Duterte. Since 2018, the Filipino government has brought 23 cases against Ressa and
1:16.8	Rappler. At the time of recording this conversation last year a conviction could have
1:21.8	led to nearly a hundred years in prison. But thankfully, just
1:26.2	this past fall, Resa was acquitted on the last of five tax evasion cases filed against her, and what has since been hailed as a win for press freedom.
1:37.0	It's a rare victory in a line of work that's been under assault for quite some time.
1:42.0	According to the CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists,
1:45.1	363 reporters were deprived of their freedom in 2022, a 20% uptick from 2021.
1:53.8	Across the globe from Iran and China to Turkey and Belarus,
1:58.0	authoritarian governments have increasingly tried and succeeded
2:02.3	to stifle the media, to suppress and then ultimately criminalize
2:07.2	the truth.
2:08.4	But the attack on reporters extends beyond nasty rhetoric or obstruction or even harassment.
2:14.3	According to the CPJ, the first 30 days of the Israel-Gazah war is, quote,
2:19.6	the deadliest month for journalists since they began documenting journalists fatalities in 1992.
2:27.0	I should just read that again.
2:29.0	This past month is the deadliest month for journalists and media workers since the
2:35.2	CPJ began documenting fatalities in 1992. At least 61 media workers were among the 16,000 killed since the war began on October 7th.
2:48.0	And those are just the reporters on the ground that have been counted.
2:52.0	God knows how many there are or will be
	...

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