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Internationally acclaimed journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa touched upon the uncertainties in her life as she became the world's first ever Filipino and the first working journalist in more than 80 years to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
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{SOUNDBITE 0:00 - 0:14} MARIA RESSA, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND 2021 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE: I wasn't living a normal life as a journalist, you know. Who...it's been five years that I've been under attack. There was nothing normal about that.
This year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ressa spoke about how she's been working as a journalist in the teeth of sustained legal assault in the Philippines, including a libel complaint that carries up to six years in jail.
{SOUNDBITE 0:17 - 0:24} MARIA RESSA: You know the painting, The Scream? Aaaaah! That's the way I am today. I wake up every day like that.
Maria Ressa spoke during an interview with the Associated Press at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, prior to her lecture on Press Freedom in that university.
Her few well-chosen words came as American journalist Danny Fenster reunited with his family members on the heels of his negotiated release from Myanmar, an embattled country which witnessed a sea change following a military coup earlier this year. He spent six months in jail for his work there.
Notwithstanding the assaults against her, Ressa isn't backing down, nor is she banking on the Philippine government supporting her news agency, Rappler, which gained her notoriety and a libel complaint back in 2019.
Still, she admitted, her job as a journalist predisposes her towards more assaults, which is why, at times, she had taken to wearing a bulletproof vest in public as death threats ballooned.
While there is word her pursuit of press freedom is to no avail, she said she's dead set against calling it quits, especially after becoming a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, saying she's hell-bent on fighting for journalists who are still in Venezuela and Myanmar.
{SOUNDBITE 00:43 - 01:02} MARIA RESSA: It's for all journalists around the world. I'm very lucky. I'm here in Harvard. What about the journalist who fled Myanmar? The journalists in Venezuela who are continuing to speak truth to power?
As the case of Danny Fenster speaks volumes, Ressa says, on no account will she give up, pledging to stay the course, on the off chance that not only will democracy survive, but she will also stay out of jail.
{SOUNDBITE 01:16 - 01:39} MARIA RESSA: But I know that if we keep doing our task, staying on mission, holding the line. That there's a better chance that our democracy not only survives, but that I also stay out of jail. I've done nothing wrong except being a journalist. That is the price we have to pay today.
Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, is wrapping up a month-long pilgrimage to the United States as she gave her lecture to students of Harvard University via the Internet. It's her first time out of the Philippines since being convicted last summer of libel and sentenced to jail as a decision deemed a major blow to press freedom globally.
Despite seemingly formidable obstacles in her quest for press freedom, Ressa says she will by no means let the impediments prevent her from going forward.
As regards whether every government in every nook and cranny of the world supports press freedom is a decision that remains hanging in the balance.
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