Interview with peace laureate Maria Ressa, September 2022 in Oslo, Norway. 

Why did you decide to become a journalist? 

Maria Ressa: I fell into journalism and I loved it. Part of it was the times. In 1986, People Power Revolt had just happened. Filipinos were trying to understand what that meant. The government station for example, they had to learn to get over self-censorship. And I was there. I learned the Philippines through news. When my fellowship – it was a one year Fulbright Fellowship – was about to end, one of the women I worked for said “why don’t we create our own company?” Which is what we did. I went back to New York. I bought equipment, and we started our own company – a startup before startups were created. It challenges every part of you. Journalism challenges you to be your best, to do your best, to understand left brain, right brain, the world around you. How incredible is that? 

Why is press freedom so important? 

Maria Ressa: In countries like the United States, the Philippines, and most democratic countries around the world, the news organisations and journalists are the connective tissue between governments and the power of the people. The power rests with the people. That’s part of the reason you have to hold power to account. That’s our task. You have to have the courage to ask the tough questions to people who can really make your life miserable. That also determines access. But why do you ask those tough questions? Because you are responsible to the public you serve. Journalists help make sure that governance is transparent, that leaders are held accountable, and that they’re consistent. Freedom of speech in the Philippines is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights as it is in the United States. It is the foundation of every single right, that a Filipino has. Because if you don’t have that on the citizen’s part – if you don’t feel like you can say what you think because you’re going to be attacked – then your rights are being trampled upon. 

What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation? 

Maria Ressa: Misinformation is kind of like gossip spreading through a telephone line. It gets distorted slightly. That’s very different from disinformation, which is like a push of power to manipulate you, a lie, seeded for a purpose. 

How can we combat disinformation? 

Maria Ressa: There’s so much we can do. Telling people about the problem isn’t enough because you only get depressed. You don’t want learned helplessness. When I was trying to write the Nobel lecture, I came up with this phrase: “a person-to-person defense of our democracy.” That came out of something I learned when I was in college: the honor code. In my university – I went to Princeton – we had an honour code. At the bottom of every test, every paper you write, I pledge my honour that I’ve not cheated. That honour code is not just about you. It’s also about everyone you see around you. If you see someone cheating, and you don’t report it, you have violated the honour code. 

We’re responsible for our area of influence. That’s kind of the idea: that if we each in our area of influence, live our values, then we can connect, like a mesh, these areas of influence. It’s the only thing we can do in the short term. We have to find a new way of creating civic engagement in the age of exponential lies. The medium term is laws. That’s what the EU has come up with. The EU is the most progressive of the laws that are out there. The European Democracy Action Plan came up with the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. In the long term, like every new technology, it’s going to have to be about education. All of these have to shift. This is fundamental. The world as we know it, is destroyed, and the battle is in our minds. If we accept that we’re stepping on the rubble of the world that was, then we can begin to create a new world. That’s the exciting part of today, that you can actually create what the world can become. 

You’ve been threatened with imprisonment. How do you keep hope? 

Maria Ressa: You are your own worst enemy. Whatever it is that you’re most afraid of, you have to imagine it in your head. You have to hold it, touch it, embrace it. Think what you would do if that happened, and then plan it. If you’re ready for that, whatever you’re most afraid of, everything else is cake. That stayed with me, because I think sometimes in real life, we are our own worst enemies. You don’t think you can do it, so you don’t even try. I learned how to get over that when I was younger. As I got older and began to lead teams, I always think through worst case scenarios.  

I was a war zone correspondent and I was in charge of my team. Before we walk into any conflict area, I would lay out the worst case and I would prepare for that worst case. Then I would be ready and I could improvise in the moment, no matter what happens. For example, there was a checkpoint in Ambon. You had Muslims and Christian checkpoints. How did we deal with it? We had a Muslim car and a Christian car. Depending on which checkpoint we were going to, the Muslim car would lead for a Muslim checkpoint. The Christian car would lead for a Christian checkpoint. I use this as an example, because if you plan ahead and you embrace your fear, then everything else is okay. I think the hardest part for us is to be paralysed by fear or to stop doing something. Because you’re afraid of whatever infinite possibilities or infinite threats there could be. I think this is one of the things that annoyed the Duterte administration. It’s not that I’m not afraid. It’s that fear is the worst thing. So you manage your fear and you move forward. You don’t lose track of your North Star. What is the goal? You keep going! 

You have a lot of young change makers looking up to you. What is your advice to them? 

Maria Ressa: This is the toughest time to be a journalist and yet also the best time to be a journalist. I grapple with this every day in Rappler. My advice? To look at the world with fresh eyes, to see it as it is, to define your lines of good and evil. While you’re young, you don’t make the compromises to realise when you’re compromising.  

Don’t be cynical. Cynicism kills. I prefer pragmatism over cynicism. Pragmatism gives you room to move. Cynicism is exactly what happens on social media. You expect the worst of people, so you will get the worst of people. We create the world we want. If I treat you like I don’t trust you, how would you react? If you are the younger generation right now, the challenge for you in an attention economy, is the search for meaning. It’s always been the challenge for human beings. It’s our search for meaning. Where you spend your time will determine what gives your life meaning. Understand that these information ecosystems, these technology platforms, are sucking your spirit. You may feel like you have control and you can curate your life, but that’s a time suck. The more time you spend in this, the less time you have in the real world. Build a life! 

The dangers are real for this generation. Let’s not even talk climate change, right? Will our planet even survive? The dangers are very real. But they have a chance to do better than we did. I think this generation that created social media, they’ve got to stop the greed. I don’t know how we’ll get through it, but we must. 

What gives you hope about the future? 

Maria Ressa: In my world – Rappler – we’re still here. We haven’t compromised. There’s a back and forth of energy from the older founders and our young people. When we get tired, they give us energy. When they get lost, we give them focus. In the Philippines, regardless of how disappointing many things can be, I’ve learned a ton in terms of silence; that the majority wants to stay silent. It is afraid to speak. But I believe in the goodness of human nature. I have seen it. I’ve been in war zones, in disaster areas, where people are just incredibly generous. I’ve been in a place where a family has no food, and they offer me their water. It’s incredible. I have no choice, because what else is there? Would you just give up? Then you don’t fight the battle at all. 

How do we build trust within the global community? 

Maria Ressa: Everyone on the side of the good in many ways has to do much better. The side of democracy sees all the nuances and they don’t come out as clearly as the side of the bad. Now I talk about social media. Everything is compressed. Part of the reason these meta narratives that lies are built on, is that they’re seeded and they pull them up every time, and people begin to think they’re true. What are the good guys doing? Old power hasn’t adjusted enough. Old power still thinks it has power, and that’s not going to change. This goes back down to what are the stories we tell? What is the narrative? What are we trying to do? The good guys are fighting amongst themselves for nuances that frankly get lost. 

How can other people step forward to be a catalyst for change? 

Maria Ressa: I love speaking to the young, because it’s very clear what right and wrong is. We teach this to our kids. As we get older, we know what’s right and wrong, but vested interests get in the way. Are you going to get paid more? Will you lose your business if you stand up against the dictator? Yes, maybe. But not doing it will also have repercussions. That’s what I mean by: be very clear. If you’re compromising, at least admit it’s a compromise. Part of that clarity is that enough people realise that the compromise will cost us our future. It’s that clarity is really clear before you walk into a job, the minute you have a job and the minute you gain more power. I think that clarity then becomes really important to know when you compromise too much. 

How do people look within themselves to find their values? 

Maria Ressa: I think what drives humanity, what drives people, is this search for meaning, and meaning isn’t something that someone hands to you. It’s something that you build with every little decision you make. It’s actually the little decisions that determine who you are. It’s being aware of what gives our lives meaning. I think the problem that I have with the attention economy is that where you choose to spend your time is what will give your life meaning. The social media platforms are time sucks that give nothing back in return, except FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or kind of like a performative. You cannot live a performative life. You have to have a rich inner world, where you debate and have these moments where you figure out who you are. 

A lot of people have been on social media for a while. How do we detox ourselves from social media? 

Maria Ressa: The radicalisation happens when you’re addicted to these platforms, to the internet. Again, what’s the rule of law of the internet? Is there a government that did it? No, they’ve been determined by private companies. Is that the right way to do it?  

Sometimes it’s a detox that does it. I’ve spoken to people who just said that they stopped, because they didn’t like the person they were becoming. It’s the first thing: learn. The more you learn, the more you realise its impact on you. But then deleting Facebook, is also not the right way to deal with this, because that’s the information super highway right now. What are we gonna do? This is where collective action kicks in. This is why we signed the 10-point Action Plan. 

Why is lifelong learning so important for people? 

Maria Ressa: I would say not just lifelong learning. I would say awareness of the place in time. The way you view the world is for most of us experiential. The more self-aware you can be, the more you realise that this is a continuum of an identity that you create. That this is the work of life. That your life, your thinking, is the work of art that you are creating. Then it’s easier to learn. Everything you learn then affects everything you have learned. The reason I said learn is because too many people get stuck. Too many people give up. I’ve seen this in Rappler and I try very hard to then say “what’s the challenge?” 

When circumstances are bleak? How do you push forward? 

Maria Ressa: Even in the happy endings of everything, there’s always the step after this. Who would’ve thought I’d be arrested? It’s a little bit like PTSD, because you get punched in the gut a lot. Yet you also know that how you react will determine the next steps. Look at the world as it is, not as it was. And imagine the best it can be. 

Watch the interview