“We have entered the era of digital dictatorship”

Former Southeast Asia CNN reporter Philippine journalist Maria Ressa launches independent news site Ropler, The front line to investigate President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent skid, the war on drugs has claimed thousands of lives. In a country where murders of journalists are frequent, especially on social media, he continues to be the target of power.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 8, as well as the editor of the Independent Russian newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, Dmitry Muradov. In an interview with The world, He returns to threats against Philippine political activists and the danger that social networks represent democracy.

How did you find out you had won the Nobel Peace Prize?

I joined an internet conference with two other news sites, one Malaysian, the other Indonesian, and we were discussing how independent media can live in our country. I see my phone vibrating next to the computer. I see a call coming from Norway, I turn off the computer’s microphone and answer the phone; The leader of the group, Olav Enzolstadt, tells me that I have the Nobel Peace Prize with another person because he has not been able to announce her name yet.

It was totally crazy, I was overwhelmed. Then he added, “You should not talk about it until the official announcement comes. It is necessary to wait with such secrecy, what torture! I swallowed my emotions, reactivated my microphone and resumed the conference discussion until the announcement came. It was exciting and crazy for me. The real shock Ropler.

Why did the Nobel Committee choose you and Dmitry Murado?

It is a gift to journalists in the countries where they are attacked. At the same time, the last time a journalist got this award, it got worse for him. I don’t know if the team thought about it. In 1936, Karl von Ochitsky, who had condemned the German Reformation, was deported to a concentration camp. [il est mort de la tuberculose en 1938 en prison]. That was eighty-five years ago.

For me, the most rewarding aspect of this award is that it targets all journalists living under pressure in the Philippines or elsewhere. Yesterday, I started my day with a discussion with Venezuelan journalists, who are lower than us in the press freedom rankings and they touched that I got this award. This was also understood by the journalists I spoke to in India. But all of a sudden, the days of me talking in the media are over: do you have an impression when you hear what I have to say to the old broken record? [Rire]

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