Fierce Duterte critic Maria Ressa is one of Time’s ‘Persons of the Year’

The Rappler editor is one of the defiant journalists recognised by Time as its ‘Person of the Year’

She says will continue to stand up to the Duterte administration despite its alleged campaign to discredit her

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Maria Ressa, editor of Philippine online news site Rappler, is one of Time’s “Persons of the Year” for 2018. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:00pm, 12 Dec 2018Updated: 12:33am, 21 Dec 2018

The Philippines’ Maria Ressa – one of the persecuted journalists recognised by Time magazine as its “Person of the Year” – still believes social media can save democracy.

Ressa, 55, a former war correspondent who was also the CNN bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta, co-founded the online news site Rappler in 2012. The site has been outspoken in its criticism of the Philippines government, particularly President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

Ressa was recently charged with five cases of tax fraud, which many in the country see as a reaction to Rappler’s reporting. The New York-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists has called the case a direct assault on press freedom.

“Part of the reason the government is attacking us is we show data-based evidence that officials were complicit in the spreading of hate,” Ressa told the South China Morning Post.

The Duterte administration in January moved to revoke Rappler’s licence as scrutiny of the news site intensified in the Philippines, where its credibility has been attacked on social media on the basis of what Ressa has said is misinformation spread by the government.