MARIA RESSA

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.

If I lose these tax-evasion cases and others filed by the Philippine government, I could go to jail for 10 to 15 years.

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

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.

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.

I'm not a politician; I'm a journalist.

Embrace your fear. Imagine what you're most afraid of, touch it and hold it so that you rob it of its power.

Now technology gives you a chance to help organize. You don't have to wait for either the inefficiency or the corruption. You don't have to wait for government. You can actually self-organize and build institutions bottom up.

In a war zone you know exactly where the threats are coming from. I plan my way in and we plan our way out and you're there for a limited period of time.

After I got arrested the Filipino government unshackled me. I knew first-hand how they violated my rights and I could speak about that from experience.

If the social media platforms don't take the gatekeeping seriously they will kill the public sphere. If we don't get this right in 2020 you can open a decade or longer of a descent into fascism. And it will be global because platforms are global.

So a lie told a million times becomes the truth.

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.

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.

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

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

The social media platforms have taken over the distribution of news globally. They treat a lie the same way you would treat a fact.

If you want to rip the heart out of a democracy, you go after the facts. That's what modern authoritarians do. You lie. All the time. Then, you say it's your opponents and the journalists who lie.

Technology enabled Rappler's fast growth starting in 2012, but we were also among the first victims when social media was weaponized in 2016.

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

Ninety-seven percent of Filipinos on the Internet are on Facebook. And according to Hootsuite or We Are Social, in January 2019, Filipinos spend the most time on the Internet, and they spend the most time on social media globally.

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

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

My heroes were always a combination of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock. You have to be ruled by logic, but if you're only ruled by logic and you don't touch your emotions, you will make the wrong instinctive call.

Truth matters. Checks and balances matter.