Quotes from Maria Ressa

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.

Investigative journalism is never mass-based; it's very focused, and you want people who are passionate about it to take it.

Truth matters. Checks and balances matter.

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 politician; I'm a journalist.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Without facts you can't have truth.

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

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

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.

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.

Don't be afraid - if you don't exercise your rights, you will lose them.

Don't let technology dictate your life.

The seed idea for Rappler really is looking at information cascades. If you think about it, the end goal - when I was raising money for Rappler, I didn't talk about investigative journalism, even though that's our core.

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.

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'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.

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

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