Maria Ressa
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Co-founder and CEO, Rappler
As CEO of Rappler, the digital news site leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines, Maria Ressa has endured political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government. Rappler’s battle for truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary A Thousand Cuts. Ressa has received numerous accolades. In October 2021, she was one of two journalists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
In 2022, she was appointed to the leadership panel of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum and serves as its vice-chair. In March 2026, she was selected by the United Nations to sit on the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and serves as its co-chair. Ressa is a professor of practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she leads the Technology & Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics. She is the author of three books, most recently How to Stand Up to a Dictator.
