Ressa has been subject to sustained campaign of gendered online abuse and has been targeted by Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte
The UN’s cultural agency has awarded its annual press freedom prize to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa whose reporting has made her a target of her country’s judiciary and online hate campaigns.
Ressa, a former Asia lead investigative reporter for US network CNN and head of the domestic network ABS-CBN News, now manages the news website Rappler whose reporting has attracted the wrath of the Filipino leader, Rodrigo Duterte.
She has been involved in many international initiatives to promote press freedom, and arrested several times “for alleged crimes related to the exercise of her profession”, Unesco said.
