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Maria Ressa Facts & Worksheets

Maria Angelita Ressa is a reporter from the Philippines and the United States. She has extensive experience covering stories from Southeast Asia as CNN's lead investigative reporter, having done so for nearly two decades.

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Maria Angelita Ressa is a reporter from the Philippines and the United States. She started Rappler along with her husband and now runs the company as its CEO. She has extensive experience covering stories from Southeast Asia as CNN’s lead investigative reporter, having done so for nearly two decades. 

See the fact file below for more information on Maria Ressa, or you can download our 22-page Maria Ressa worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • In October of 1963, Ressa was born in Manila. When Ressa was just a year old, her father, the Chinese Filipino Phil Sunico Aycardo, passed away. She attended St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and grew up speaking solely Filipino at home. 
  • Her mother, Hermelina, took her and her sister to the United States, where they lived with their father’s family, but she frequently returned to see her daughters. Her mother eventually returned to the Philippines after marrying an Italian-American named Peter Ames Ressa. 
  • When Maria Ressa was ten years old, she relocated to New Jersey, United States, with her mother and father. Because of her stepfather’s adoption, Maria Ressa went by his surname. 
  • She attended Toms River High School North when her family moved to the area from somewhere in New Jersey. Maria Ressa, who had to study English to get by, eventually became active in the high school Theater Guild and Student Council. 
  • As seen in her yearbook profile, she has big plans to go out and change the world. When Maria Ressa was an undergraduate, she attended Princeton University, earning an A.B. in English and certifications in theater and dance, graduating with honors in 1986. 
  • A senior thesis titled “Sagittarius,” which she finished writing, ran for 77 pages. Maria Ressa went on to study political theater at the University of the Philippines Diliman on a Fulbright Fellowship. She later became a faculty member, teaching several journalism courses.

CAREER

  • Ressa’s initial employment was with the government television network PTV 4. After working for CNN in Manila as its bureau head from 1983 until 1995, she co-founded the independent production firm Probe in 1987. The Jakarta, Indonesia, office of CNN was under her direction from 1995 to 2005. She specialized in uncovering terrorist networks as CNN’s top Asia-based investigatory reporter. 
  • She joined the faculty of Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore as a writer-in-residence at the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
  • After working for CNN and The Wall Street Journal as a journalist, Ressa took over leadership of the news department of ABS-CBN in 2004.
  • She published an article in The Wall Street Journal in September 2010, criticizing then-president Benigno Aquino III’s response to the bus hostage issue. This article was published exactly two weeks before the president’s state visit to the United States.
  • Ressa decided not to renew her contract with the company in 2010, and it was widely assumed that this was a significant factor in her decision to leave the organization.
  • During this time, she also investigated the role of social media in terrorist organizations, specifically how they radicalize and mobilize their supporters. Her findings were published in the book  “Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism” in 2013.
  • Ressa founded the Rappler website in 2012, serving as its CEO and chief editor. The site swiftly expanded to become one of the Philippines’ most popular news sources. When Ressa questioned Rodrigo Duterte, then-mayor of Davao City, in 2015, he acknowledged killing three individuals. After he was elected president of the Philippines in 2016, Rappler was one of the few news outlets to oppose his policies.
  • It published extensively on his drug war, in which thousands of extrajudicial deaths occurred. Other reports exposed government corruption and human rights breaches. Ressa continued to explore social media, and in 2016 and 2017, she revealed how the Philippine government and its supporters exploited social media to propagate disinformation, harass opponents, and distort public dialogue.
  • Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into Rappler, briefly revoking the site’s operating license in 2017. Rappler and Ressa have faced abuse from social media trolls, had reporters blocked from the presidential palace, and met a slew of lawsuits, including some alleging tax evasion and violations of foreign-ownership regulations.
  • Ressa interviewed Rodrigo Duterte, the 16th president of the Philippines, in the 1980s. In 2015, she interviewed him again for his presidential campaign; at that time, he admitted to killing three individuals when he was mayor. During her time as editor-in-chief, Rappler has never stopped criticizing Duterte’s policies, especially his drug war policies.
  • On the website she was in charge of, there was also a report about a supposed “troll army” of pro-Duterte internet users who spread false information and skewed coverage of his leadership.
  • Duterte said that Rappler was “totally owned” by the Americans in violation of the constitution during his State of the Nation Address in July 2017. The news on Rappler is phony, and the fact that it is written by Filipinos is also a lie, he added. 
  • The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently opened an investigation against Rappler in August 2017 and sought to see the company’s records at that time. It canceled Rappler’s operating permit in January 2018. 
  • In 2018, under Duterte’s administration, the government canceled the permit for the site to be open to the public. Ressa went to the NBI in the Philippines on January 22, 2018, to answer a subpoena about an online libel complaint. This was required by the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which the government of Rodrigo Duterte has used to punish criticism of the president and his allies.  

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  • Maria Ressa, who has worked as a journalist in Asia for over 35 years, co-founded Rappler, the leading digital-only news site in the Philippines. Maria, Rappler’s CEO and president, has been the target of political harassment and detention ten times under the Duterte administration, forcing her to repeatedly post bail to avoid jail time. The documentary A Thousand Cuts was shown at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, focusing on Rappler’s fight for truth and democracy.
  • To honor her “efforts to defend freedom of expression, a precondition for democracy and sustainable peace,” the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Maria in October 2021, together with another journalist.
  • Maria was recognized as one of Time’s 2018 Persons of the Year, one of its 2019 100 Most Influential People, and one of its Most Influential Women of the Century for combating misinformation and “fake news.” Prospect magazine named her one of the world’s top 50 intellectuals, while the BBC named her one of the year’s 100 most inspiring and influential women. 
  • The following awards were bestowed upon her in 2020: Journalist of the Year, John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, Most Resilient Journalist, Tucholsky Prize, Truth to Power Award, and Four Freedoms Award. She received UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2021.
  • Several organizations have recognized her for her strong moral compass, including the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers with their famous Golden Pen of Freedom Award, the International Center for Journalists with their Knight International Journalism Award, the Committee to Protect Journalists with their Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, and more.

Maria Ressa Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Maria Ressa across 22 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Maria Ressa. Maria Angelita Ressa is a reporter from the Philippines and the United States. She started Rappler along with her husband and now runs the company as its CEO.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Maria Ressa Worksheet
  2. The Famous Journalist
  3. The Search For Truth
  4. A Wise One
  5. Investigation
  6. One Voice
  7. Fact Checkers
  8. What’s New
  9. Greatest Threat
  10. The Messenger
  11. Trivias

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Maria Ressa known for?

Maria Ressa is known for her work as a journalist and her advocacy for press freedom. She co-founded Rappler, a Philippine news website known for its critical coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration. She has received numerous awards for her journalism, including the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

Why was Maria Ressa arrested?

Maria Ressa has been arrested multiple times in recent years, primarily on charges related to cyber libel and tax evasion. Many of her supporters believe that the charges are politically motivated and aimed at silencing her and Rappler’s critical reporting.

What is the significance of Maria Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize?

Maria Ressa was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but Rappler was recognized as part of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The award highlights the importance of protecting journalists and their work in promoting peace, democracy, and human rights.

What is the status of Maria Ressa’s legal cases?

Maria Ressa was facing multiple legal cases related to cyber libel and tax evasion. She has been convicted on some charges but has continued to fight the cases on appeal. Her supporters have criticized the legal process as politically motivated and aimed at silencing her and Rappler’s critical reporting.

What is Maria Ressa’s role in promoting press freedom?

Maria Ressa has been a vocal advocate for press freedom and has used her platform at Rappler to raise awareness of the importance of journalism in holding those in power accountable. Despite the challenges she has faced, she has continued to report on issues in the Philippines and around the world and has inspired many other journalists to do the same.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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