> “I didn’t want to be an activist, but when it’s a battle for facts, journalism is activism,” warns Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new site Rappler faced attacks from former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.

> I just came from Perugia, from the International Journalism Festival, where V-Dem, which does kind of a rating of all democracies globally — right? — their latest report now says that 72% of the world is under autocratic rule. Like, we have elected illiberal leaders in 72% — in these democracies around the world, right?

> The head of V-Dem publicly said that if the trends in America continue, that he expects democracy to die by the summer. Like, not just to wake you up, right? Like, literally. And actually, if we stop normalizing the death by a thousand cuts of rule of law, you can see this happening, right? For the Turkish grad student picked up from the streets from Tufts University, from all of the little things — we’ve talked here about the press. The press was attacked in the first Trump administration, right? Duterte echoed President Trump.

> ... we normalize new depths. Like, we should not be where we are, and yet that’s where we are. And what are you seeing being created? At the early days, in the first month, I called at the Filipinization of American politics. But I think it’s even worse, because what you’re seeing, not many mainstream covered the government pausing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — right? — saying, essentially telling Americans that it’s OK to be corrupt, because you need to be competitive.

> In 2018, MIT said that lies spread six times faster. That was before Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it to X and turned it into a human cesspool, even worse than it was in 2018. So, if lies spread six times faster, and fear, anger and hate — this is across the world — if you use fear, anger and hate, it spreads — and I hate to — I put rabbit ears on “information” — the post spreads virally, right? So, there are more ways. Online violence is real-world violence. The reason why 72% of the world today is now under authoritarian rule is partly because our public information ecosystem is corrupted. Good morning.

> ... the biggest lesson we learned is that you are at your most powerful at the beginning of the attacks. Every day you do not fight back, you lose just a little bit more of your rights. We normalize just a little bit more of this kind of pseudo-democracy, right?

> Right? Social media was used to attack us. And it’s like fertilizer. Saying you’re the enemy of the press then lets people believe. That’s astroturfing... And that sets the stage. It’s like fertilizer. So, social media, then media capture. And Robert talked about the chilling effect. Forget the chilling — it’s Siberia. And business interests. I talked about the three Cs: corrupt, coerce, coopt. For every single institution that is broken down — media, academe, NGO capture, state capture. And each step of the way as you go down, rule of law breaks down, and you lose — it’s death by a thousand cuts of your rights.

> I didn’t want to be an activist, but when it’s a battle for facts, journalism is activism. So, in our case, I said, “We hold the line. This is the line where the Constitution gives us our rights.” The Philippines, like the United States, has three branches, coequal branches of government. And the United States is following the Philippines, what happened under Duterte, a very powerful executive, a coopted legislature. And it took Duterte six months to crush the checks and balances of the Philippines, to get rid of institutional checks on his power.

> ... you talked about the 10 arrest warrants I have. Eight years later, we’ve won eight of the 10 cases, but I still have to ask for the Philippines — for approval to travel from the Philippines Supreme Court. What rights you lose today, you will not get back. Right?

> ... anyway, sorry, I could talk about this forever. I feel like I have PTSD and déjà vu all combined. You know, it’s shocking America is where it is today.

> .., what happened with Rappler? There were constant attempts to shut it down, but somehow you moved the servers abroad or you did something to make sure that, despite the crackdown on the media, you were able to continue running.

> ... we told our people very early on, when the government first tried to shut us down in January 2018, “You may not want to be here. This is going to be a different thing.” Everyone has a different risk appetite, right? So we gave our reporters the option to leave Rappler, because I said, “We’ll help place you in another news organization.” Not one reporter took that. Right?

> ... once you know who you are and what you stand for and you’re ready for the worst case, then you stand up for your rights. I think that’s the challenge today. In How to Stand Up to a Dictator, the question I asked Filipinos, and I now ask — the reason why I thought it was coming for every democracy around the world is this tech is global. You know, what it proved is that we could all be manipulated in the exact same way, regardless of country or culture. It was like looking at Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Oh my god! And we’re allowing this to happen. They’re doing it with impunity for profit. So, hold the line, don’t give up your rights, because you only get weaker over time.

> .... what’s at stake for the world today is whether or not an international rules-based order still exists, whether it’s Ukraine or Gaza or tech, right? And then, what the Philippines proved is that — and people will say, “Well, it’s power politics.” Everything is power politics. What the Philippines proved is that little Philippines actually honored an ICC — the very first time a Filipino president has been charged with crimes against humanity, when he was arrested. I was in the Philippines when that happened. We broke the story in Rappler for the arrest warrant. And when that happened, we didn’t know it was going to happen.

> I really want to tell Americans, that you take step by step towards the goal of your values, towards the rights you have. And you don’t know what will happen. It’s incredibly uncertain. There were times I thought I would go to jail. There were times I had to wear a bulletproof vest in the car. Right? But you hold tight. And I think that’s what — I lost my right to travel. Five times, I couldn’t travel. Then the Nobel Prize happened, and I could travel. But I’ve still lost some rights.

> Fear is real. I mean, in the Philippines, there were an average of eight dead bodies dumped on the sidewalk every night. We had one reporter going out every night, right? So, fear is real. And there were times I was angry at Filipinos for not doing more. But we kept going. And I think the Philippines shows you that it could take a while, but justice does happen. But it depends on what happens in America now — right? — where the world goes. It’s still true: What happens to America will — America catches a cold, so does the entire world. Right? So, look at the markets, as you’ve done. Anyway, hold on to your rights.

- democracynow.org/2025/4/24/tru…
#MariaRessa on #RodrigoDuterte #NormalizingKleptocracy #VDem
#FilipinizationOfAmerica

As Trump Attacks CBS, Maria Ressa Warns He Is Following Philippine Model to Crack Down on Free Press

As the Trump administration goes after universities, law firms and more, some argue that the free press will eventually become a target.

^{Democracy Now!}