Supporting fact-checking communities with Nobel laureate Maria Ressa

“We journalists spend our entire careers learning how to make facts interesting, to tell good stories, but we just can't compete against the lies,” Maria Ressa tells attendees and viewers at the 2022 APAC Trusted Media Summit.

Google News Initiative

Editor's Note: Below you'll find Maria Ressa’s keynote speech at the 2022 APAC Trusted Media Summit. Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist, author, and co-founder and CEO of Rappler, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” Excerpts from her speech have been edited for length and clarity. To watch Ressa’s keynote and other talks from 2022 and previous years, visit APAC Trusted Media Summit.

RESSA’S REMARKS
Our biggest problem all around the world is this basic question: How can we as journalists on the front lines rebuild trust?

When we created Rappler a decade ago, it was with the idea that we build communities of action, and the food we feed our communities is journalism. How does that food get to our community? Technology.

It's a fact that lies are spreading faster than facts. A 2018 study done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that lies are spreading at least six times more than these really boring facts that we journalists use. We journalists spend our entire careers learning how to make facts interesting, to tell good stories, but we just can't compete against the lies.

In the Philippines, we did this with the help of Meedan, a San Francisco-based startup, and with the Google News initiative, we collectively formed #FactsFirstPH. MORE