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Maria Ressa

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The Resume

    (October 2, 1963- )
    Born in Manilla, Philippines
    CNN bureau chief in Manilla (1988-95) and Jakarta (1995-2005)
    Headed the news division of ABS-CBN (2005-10)
    Co-founder and CEO of the news website Rappler (2011)
    Convicted on charges of cyberlibel (June 15, 2020)
    Co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (2021)

Why she might be annoying:

    She said about her lack of interest in journalism in college, 'I was pre-med -- a good Asian-American.'
    ABS-CBN reportedly declined to renew her contract due to the fallout from an editorial she wrote for the Wall Street Journal criticizing Benigno Aquino III shortly before he made an official visit to the US.
    She and Rappler were charged with failing to pay taxes on the sales of bonds to foreign investors (2018).

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her father died when she was one.
    At CNN, she specialized in investigating terrorist networks.
    She conducted the famed interview in which presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte confessed to killing three people while mayor.
    The tax and libel cases were widely seen as attempts by the Duterte regime to silence one its most persistent critics.
    She was tried for violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 even though the article at the center of the case had been published before the law went into effect.
    The government argued that the correction of a typo in 2014 constituted republishing the article, making it subject to the law.
    She said, 'This case of cyberlibel stretches the rule of law until it breaks.'
    Reporters Without Borders described the case against her as 'Kafkaesque.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 29 Votes: 44.83% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 69 Votes: 66.67% Annoying