Isabelle speaks with Maria Ressa, CEO and Executive Editor of Rappler, one of the leading online news organizations in the Philippines. Ressa was honored in 2018 as a Person of the Year by Time for her efforts and impact combating fake news.
Is global press freedom under attack and how?
As early as November 2017, we saw the studies: Freedom House came out and said in 27 countries around the world, cheap armies on social media are tearing down democracy, rolling back democracy. The year after that, the Oxford Computational Propaganda Project said that number went up — doubled. It's a very difficult time with technology which once empowered, now is being used to tear down, is being used to replace facts with fiction, is being used to create alternative realities. We've heard these words, "fake news" right? It's a time when journalists have to come together and fight for the facts, because facts lead to truth and truth leads to trust.