Maria A Ressa

Maria has been a journalist in Asia for more than 25 years, most of them as CNN's bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta. For nearly 2 decades, she had a front-row seat chronicling Southeast Asia's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, the Asian financial crisis, as well as reporting on separatist, ethnic and sectarian violence across Asia. She was CNN's lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia. Maria was one of the founders of independent production company, Probe Productions, Inc. based in the Philippines. In 2005, she took the helm of ABS-CBN News and Current affairs, for 6 years managing more than 1,000 journalists for the largest multi-platform news operation in the Philippines. Her work aimed to redefine journalism by combining traditional broadcast, new media and mobile phone technology for social change. She taught courses in politics and media for her alma mater, Princeton University, and in broadcasting at the University of the Philippines. She was Author-in-Residence and Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore as well as Southeast Asia Visiting Scholar at CORE Lab at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.