Democracy Dialogues: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the world’s most prominent advocates for journalism as a bulwark of democracy, joins New York Public Radio President & CEO Christy Tanner and Brian Lehrer for the second Democracy Dialogues conversation. Ressa will discuss understanding, defending and rebuilding democracy in the age of AI.
Maria Ressa grew up in America and studied at Princeton University before working as a journalist in Asia for over 40 years. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in the region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative news organization, Rappler, in her native country of The Philippines. From this time to after the election of now-detained former president Rodrigo Duterte, she challenged corruption and malfeasance at the hands of his administration, enduring multiple arrests in attempts to silence her. Ressa won the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2021 and was TIME Person of the Year in 2018, and was named by TIME as one of the most inspiring and influential women of the century. She has received countless awards for her work, including the Golden Pen of Freedom Awards from the World Association of News Publishers. In addition to her latest book The Fight Back, Ressa has also authored Seeds of Terror (2003), From Bin Laden to Facebook (2012), and her memoir, a New York Times bestseller, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future (2022).
Currently, Ressa remains active as the CEO of Rappler, while serving as a professor at Columbia University and co-chairing the UN panel on AI. She continues her global advocacy against online disinformation, digital authoritarianism and the erosion of press freedom.
