When the Philippine investigative journalist Maria Ressa won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee called her “a fearless defender of freedom of expression” who “exposed the abuse of power, use of violence and increasing authoritarianism” of Rodrigo Duterte , the president of the Philippines who left office this year.
Ms. Ressa notes that before she and Russian journalist Dmitri Muratov shared the prize, the last journalist to win it was Carl von Ossietzky, a German who received the honor in 1935 while languishing in a Nazi concentration camp.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee signaled that the world was at a similar historical moment, another existential point for democracy,” Ms. Ressa writes in her new book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator.” Since 2017, she has been battling charges brought against her by the Philippine government, including tax evasion and three cyber libel cases.
“My freedom’s at stake, and my reputation,” says Ms. Ressa, 59, on a video call from Los Angeles, where she is visiting family and her lawyer, the human-rights advocate Amal Clooney .