Maria RESSA

Image Credit: Jaramo81/WikkiCommons

A journalist, writer and Nobel Peace Laureate, Maria Ressa has been the target of judicial harassment and intimidation since her initial arrest on 13 February 2019. At the end of 2025, she remained free on post-conviction bail, with one active case pending: an ongoing appeal by Ressa and a colleague against their 2020 cyber libel conviction. The conviction, upheld on appeal in July 2022, carries a potential sentence of up to six years’ imprisonment. In June 2025, Ressa was acquitted of a second charge under the Philippines' Anti-Dummy Law, which restricts foreign ownership or control of certain enterprises.  

Five counts of tax evasion filed in 2018 against Ressa and the online media outlet Rappler were dismissed in 2023, with Rappler’s shutdown order overturned in 2024, both events significant victories for press freedom in the Philippines (see Case Lists 2019-2025 for further details). 

Maria Ressa, born on 2 October 1963, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her efforts to ‘safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace’. Since 2018, she has faced numerous spurious charges linked to her reporting, including investigations exposing government corruption and the human cost of former president Rodrigo Duterte's ‘war on drugs’, which resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings.  

Ressa is the author of two books on the rise of terrorism in Southeast Asia—Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center (2011) and From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism (2013). She is also the founder and CEO of Rappler, an independent online news platform. 

Update: 

On 9 March 2026, the Philippines’ Office of the Solicitor General filed a motion with the Supreme Court recommending the acquittal of Maria Ressa. As such, it appears likely that the long campaign of judicial harassment she has endured will finally come to an end.  

Image Credit: Jaramo81 / WikkiCommons