National Press Club honors Maria Ressa with 2020 International Press Freedom Award

The National Press Club was proud to honor Maria Ressa, the executive editor of Rappler, with its International John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award at this year’s Fourth Estate Award Gala.

Convicted in June on trumped-up charges of cyber libel in the Philippines, Ressa, who co-founded Rappler in 2012, has been the target of repeated efforts by the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to silence her.

“I learned that you don’t really know who you are until you’re forced to fight for it,” Ressa explained in her acceptance speech. “It’s like I spent my entire career going to the gym, training for this moment, and I’m now ready for battle…because that’s exactly what this is. It’s a battle for facts, a battle for meaning, a battle for values.”

Currently facing eight criminal charges in the Philippines with sentences that could add up to almost 100 years in prison, Ressa’s voice has only grown louder. She has emerged as one of the leading advocates for press freedom in the Philippines, where independent journalism is under constant threat.

Last year, Ressa was named among the "Persons of the Year" in Time magazine's issue on Press Freedom. Ressa, a longtime journalist, is a Fulbright scholar, a Princeton graduate and former CNN bureau chief.

In her closing remarks, Ressa challenged her journalist colleagues to ask themselves one question: “what are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?”

Ressa let the question linger in the air for a moment before issuing her final call to action: “Imagine it, embrace it, then go and do it, now.”

Named for a former Club president and fervent press freedom advocate, the National Press Club gives its Aubuchon award each year to one journalist from the United states and one from overseas who bravely pushes to disclose the truth in trying circumstances. This year’s domestic award went to Linda Tirado, the freelance photojournalist who was hit in the eye by a policeman’s foam bullet while covering a street protest in Minneapolis on May 30.

Ressa and Tirado’s acceptance speeches can be viewed in their entirety here: