Maria Angelita Ressa is a Filipino American journalist and author, the co-founder and CEO of Rappler, and the first independent Filipino Nobel laureate. She previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN.
In 2020, she was convicted of cyberlibel by the Philippine government under the controversial Philippine Anti-Cybercrime law, a move condemned by human rights groups and journalists as an attack on press freedom.
Ressa was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Dmitry Muratov for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
Books in order of publication:
Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia – 2003
10 Days, 10 Years: From Bin Laden to Facebook – 2012
Oak Lawn Library Friends 