Thread by @rapplerdotcom

NOW: Seasoned journalist @chechelazaro talks to Rappler’s CEO and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate @mariaressa in this special #RapplerAt10 version of Rappler Talk as we celebrate #ADecadeOfCourage.

WATCH: rappler.com/about/intervie…

@chechelazaro @mariaressa .@chechelazaro: When you look back, did you think you’d get this far?

@mariaressa: I had faith that we would, what I didn’t count on was exactly how hard that would be.... being arrested a few times, having to fight for the facts.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: But I had faith in the vision that we had, which was to take technology, to have journalists embrace that, and work on what journalism was going to evolve into. #RapplerAt10

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: In that media landscape 10 years ago, was it the right time to make a radical switch from traditional media to the digital format.

@mariaressa: Everyone warned me about the dangers of it. But it was the absolute right time, and even argue it was a little delayed.

.@mariaressa: I realized when I was heading ABS-CBN that traditional news groups looked at the internet as an add-on, and yet this would be the tail that wags the dog. #RapplerAt10

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: The internet was where we put our youngest people. They wouldn’t be like your best people that put on your primetime newscasts… It wasn’t a place of experimentation. #RapplerAt10

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa on what she learned from ABS-CBN: Efficiency is what traditional media looks for. But innovation is what the internet needed, and that we traditional journalists didn't embrace the internet enough at that point.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: What did you have faith in?

@mariaressa says it’s the people that she put together and notes that Lazaro was the reason that she remains in the Philippines as Lazaro started Probe Productions.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa to @chechelazaro: So when I started getting arrested, I sent her a text saying ‘Che, this is all your fault.’

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: Did you think at ground zero that you would get to 10 years so fast and so furiously?

@mariaressa: I’m going to say something that you always used to say, ‘It’s not about you, it’s about the team.’

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa on her co-founders: I’ve always felt like the vision of Rappler, people think it’s me. I look at methods of distribution, of how technology is changing. But the manangs are incredible. We couldn’t have done it without each other. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: People think I’m alone, I am not and that’s a huge thing when you’re under attack. There’s four of us: @glendamgloria, @bethfrondoso, @chayhofilena, and myself.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa on how the manangs work: Everytime something bad happens, we don’t even have to communicate. We already know where we’re gonna run… to get to the same point.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro on manangs: When did you four gel into one strong unit?

@mariaressa: At the beginning. The ambition was so huge, we were gonna put a newscast in your pocket. It was a combination of broadcast journalism and investigative journalism. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa on @glendamgloria in ABS-CBN: Anytime we experimented with something, we would try it first in ANC. If it worked, then @bethfrondoso would pick it up for TV Patrol and ABS-CBN.

We had our own little factories and we took that into Rappler. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: At the very beginning, I think the biggest shock was from managing a thousand journalists to 12. In ABS-CBN, I had assistants. In Rappler, I transcribed everything.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: Did you count on being controversial?

@mariaressa: Even when I was heading ABS-CBN News, we took positions of values like the Peninsula siege. We had 12 of our journalists “arrested” and we filed a case at the Supreme Court.

.@mariaressa on the Peninsula siege: That was the first time covering an attempted coup was redefined as a criminal offense… So that to me was the beginning of where we are today and we saw that happen at the beginning of the Arroyo administration. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: I never expected what we have lived through in Rappler because it’s unimaginable in a country that has a constitution, a bill of rights, the way we do.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: What is the big difference between what you were doing before in ABS-CBN and what you’re doing now?

@mariaressa says that her time at ABS-CBN News was good training for what happened in Rappler.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: When I came in to ABS-CBN, I had a case filed every month… because we decided to do something differently. We actually had something called a special separation program.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa even had a case filed against her to have her deported, saying that she wasn’t a Filipino citizen when she was heading ABS-CBN News.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: [The case] was quickly dismissed when there was rule of law and there wasn’t the propaganda war that is happening now where facts become lies and lies become lies. That’s the biggest difference today.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I realized that if you do something different, that you will have pushback… I just didn’t expect it to come from our government. It goes to show how petty politics has become.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: This idea of trying to bully or harass you into silence, the idea that you could actually intimidate a news organization. That’s a certain mentality.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

@mariaressa .@mariaressa: The way that news groups that were attacked under the Duterte administration is primarily through the business. Look at the attacks on Inquirer against the Prietos and ABS-CBN is the franchise, the money it lost.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

Recently, the National Telecommunications Commission has awarded frequencies previously owned by ABS-CBN to various media entities, including those owned by billionaire Manny Villar and Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.

READ: rappler.com/business/timel…

Quiboloy just got included in the FBI’s most wanted list “for… alleged participation in a labor trafficking scheme that brought church members to the United States”

READ: rappler.com/nation/apollo-…

.@mariaressa: In Rappler, they came in at the business. So it was law and I mean frankly economics. That’s also why it’s really important that independent media survive this time period.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

@mariaressa Here is a timeline on how the government tried to shut down Rappler when the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked their license for violating the Constitution and the Anti-Dummy Law. #ADecadeOfCourage

READ: rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/1…

The SEC upheld their revocation of Rappler’s registration last February 2021. A motion of reconsideration has been filed and remains pending with the SEC.

RELATED STORY: rappler.com/nation/after-r…

.@mariaressa: I think if we didn’t evolve and innovate, even while we were attacked in 2018 after the government tried to shut us down. We would have gone bankrupt.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: They had scared away our advertisers, but we kept doing our jobs and the better part is we came together to come up with a new sustainable business model that when the pandemic hit put us in a great place to continue innovating. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa on what she learned from @chechelazaro: The first one was it is always about the team… you’ve never took credit for what Probe did.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa recounts the first case she faced with @chechelazaro by the Philippines Tropical Fish Exporters Association in 1988: I got scared when we got the legal case… We took a video of you on the stand: ‘We will never never never be intimidated.’ #ADecadeOfCourage

.@chechelazaro: Have you ever been intimidated by the cases filed against you?

@mariaressa: The strengths of the manangs is always a deep well. We never thought twice… they’re trying to prevent us from holding power to account.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: In January 2018, when the government tried to shut us down, we came with a statement within the first hour. We wrote the statement, we forgot to run it by our lawyers.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

@mariaressa .@mariaressa: Before the press conference, our lawyers told us ‘Stop, don’t talk’... But all four of us read the decision, it was unbelievable. It was the first time in Philippine history it had ever happened. We knew we were within our rights. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: Chay and I did that press conference together and we didn’t really have anything prepared. In between us on the table, we were just jotting our talking points.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa looking back at the press conference on the SEC decision: I was just flabbergasted on how calm we were… We just did the right thing and stood up for the principles of journalism.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

@mariaressa .@chechelazaro: I’ve always known you, Maria, as a very cheerful [and] optimistic person from the first time I’ve ever met you. Have you changed your attitude, have you become more cynical?

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: We’ve known as journalists on how bad people can get. What keeps that in check is rule of law that if you do something illegal, threaten someone, that the law will come and there will be justice.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I’ve spent my career really looking for justice, for people who didn’t have the ability to demand and they went to the media. That’s actually been the history of the Philippines because our justice system moves so slowly.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: So I think that we just continue maintaining the standards and ethics of journalism that we created with Probe, I learned a lot more with CNN, and I got to create something with ABS-CBN to turn it.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I think the biggest challenge for Rappler and for the world is when the journalist lost our gatekeeping powers and technology abdicated responsibility for the public sphere.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

RELATED STORY: rappler.com/nation/electio…

#ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: It just shows you our own problems are still there but now compounded but you can’t tell facts from fiction... because the tech platforms actually prioritize the delivery of lies laced with anger and hate.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

In a Senate hearing, @mariaressa said that there should be a law to hold social media platforms accountable for the spread of disinformation. #ADecadeOfCourage:

READ: rappler.com/nation/maria-r…

.@chechelazaro: Do you still retain your faith in the justice system?

@mariaressa: We always had faith that it would get better incrementally... We had all these stumbles and now technology has helped crumble democracy and this is why these elections are really important.

.@mariaressa: It’s hard to answer because [the cases I face] shouldn’t have made it to court.

She cites the cyberlibel case where she and former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr were convicted. #ADecadeOfCourage #RapplerAt10

READ: rappler.com/nation/263790-…

Another cyberlibel case that Ressa faced with Rappler multimedia reporter Rambo Talabong for a disputed thesis-for-sale story was dropped. #ADecadeOfCourage

RELATED STORY: rappler.com/nation/manila-…

.@mariaressa: I have no choice but to have faith [in the justice system] but I understand the way pressure can be put into individuals in our system, how people can be silent because they’re afraid that they would be targeted.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I now understand how Marcos had stayed in power for almost 21 years. I didn’t understand it until I lived during the time of Duterte.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I still have faith in Filipinos that our values haven’t changed and the judges in our judiciary that they are defining the quality of our democracy.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa cites retired Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon as an example of how members of the government hold the line for democracy.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

To recall, Guanzon did an unprecedented move before her retirement on February 2 by revealing her vote to disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from the 2022 presidential race. #ADecadeOfCourage #PHVote #WeDecide

READ: rappler.com/nation/electio…

.@mariaressa said in a party organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs that Guanzon “stood up for facts… [and] stood up for justice.” #ADecadeOfCourage #PHVote #WeDecide

WATCH: rappler.com/nation/electio…

.@chechelazaro: Do you retain faith that the Filipino will overcome?

@mariaressa: We formed the #FactsFirstPH coalition to fight for facts. This is our epic battle of facts and what’s at stake: justice, truth, our democracy.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

MORE ON #FACTSFIRSTPH HERE: rappler.com/moveph/list-or…

#ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: If you only rely on statistical surveys which put Bongbong Marcos as the frontrunner also measure the impact of the disinformation campaign that hit Filipinos. Will Filipino vote that way? That’s the question.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: What are your hopes for Rappler?

@mariaressa: I think it depends on where our democracy goes. This is an existential moment, this is the Avengers Assemble moment… If facts lose, then we’re back to the future, we’ll just repeat. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: I know what it’s like to work under authoritarian rule. It’s not the same as working under a democracy… That will determine where Rappler will go.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: Rappler will depend on our next generation. When I talk to the younger Rapplers today, it’s so different... the way they do things. It’s up to you to take the values and the mission and bring it forward.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: Is Rappler at a crossroads?

@mariaressa: Our country is at a crossroads. I think Rappler is in transition, I’m 58 years old.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: Like in ABS-CBN, we’ve had succession planning in Rappler since a few years ago, and that’s why our core management team has a lot more people… We have weathered the bad times.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: This is what we’ve proven: Good values make good business, that it is okay to believe in the good because that’s the only way you can be the good.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@chechelazaro: When you speak of succession planning, it’s indicative that you plan for Rappler to go beyond 10 years. So I think that that's a good sign. Your optimism about the country and your optimism about having younger successors is good news. #ADecadeOfCourage

.@mariaressa: The future depends on what we do now… we, the people of the Philippines. So it’s hard to plan beyond that. Will Filipinos care enough… [and] go beyond the behavior modification system that makes lies facts?

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: I also know what I don’t know. I’m not young and I don’t look at the world through those lenses. I came from old power, the very groups that are being turned upside down. I came from traditional, corporate, big media.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

.@mariaressa: As our new leaders come up, you will see a new Rappler that will reflect the generation of our new leaders. That’s important because you’re talking to your audience.

#ADecadeOfCourage:

That’s a wRap on our #RapplerAt10 Rappler Talk series with our founders: @mariaressa, @glendamgloria, @chayhofilena, and @bethfrondoso.

To see more stories from former and current Rapplers, check out rplr.co/R10stories. #ADecadeOfCourage

Look back at @mariaressa’s interview with @chechelazaro here: rappler.com/about/intervie…

Be part of Rappler's next decade of courage, join Rappler+. Support our fearless journalism through rplr.co/plus.