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The Manila Times newspaper published a shocking report in 2019 claiming Rappler journalists and others were plotting to topple the government of Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte in a coup. 

Maria Ressa, Rappler’s Filipino-American bureau chief and Nobel Prize-winning editor, was listed among the so-called ‘Matrix’ list that accused editors, writers, and lawyers of manipulating readers with ‘fake news’ and aligning themselves with soldiers who planned to go in for ‘the kill’.

“They are all,” the president’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said, “Trying to destroy this government by spreading false news and planting intrigues.” 
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Duterte, elected the same year as Donald Trump in 2016, referred to journalists as ‘spies’ and ‘vultures’ yet there was no credible evidence to back up claims of a treasonous plot. Rappler pointed out that on the same day The Manilla Times published its article, the Philippines’ Armed Forces were quoted saying they hadn’t monitored any specific threat to unseat Duterte.

Maria Ressa and the long arm of the law‍

The unsubstantiated allegations were all too familiar to the Philippines’ notorious journalist Maria Ressa. She has already been accused (and acquitted) of tax evasion and, in the weeks before the Matrix article appeared, Ressa was arrested for allegedly violating laws barring foreign ownership of media. A few weeks before that, Ressa was arrested over an alleged Internet libel case.

"Obviously this is yet another abuse of my rights. I am being treated like a criminal when my only crime is to be an independent journalist," Ressa told reporters in 2019. The timing was notable - the arrests happened in the weeks leading up to the country’s midterm elections.
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Journalism tradecraft‍

Some of Ressa’s ideas about journalism and democracy stem from her exposure to American-style politics and news. Ressa’s father died when she was young. Her mother moved to the US, remarried, and raised her children in New Jersey. “One day was normal, then we were on our flight to the USA,” Ressa recalled.
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After graduating from Princeton, Ressa returned to Asia where she investigated Islamic terrorist networks. Her 2003 book Seeds of Terror examined the links between 9/11 and Southeast Asian terrorist cells. She also became interested in how social media enables terrorists and others to spread ideas and disinformation.

Ressa and five other investors created the online news portal Rappler and by 2012 reporters were producing live reports with iPhones. Rappler made waves by breaking the news that a Supreme Court Chief Justice had received his civil-law doctorate without a dissertation. When long-shot presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte ran for president in 2015, Rappler’s journalists trailed after him and developed a rapport, meeting his handlers and inner circle.

The HUMINT element‍

Ressa had previously questioned Duterte about the Davao City death squad he was accused of running while mayor. Days after his presidential victory, Duterte declared a ‘war on drugs’ and sent police squads to Manilla’s poor neighborhoods to arrest drug dealers and users. More than 300 people were reportedly killed within a month.

‍Rappler’s reporters headed to the barrios to investigate and nail down the exact numbers. They gathered eye-witness reports - HUMINT, in spy speak - and found evidence that some of the victims appeared to have been set up with planted drugs and guns, including a couple featured in a story called ‘Jerico’s Angel’.

The government denied allegations that it was downplaying the number of citizens killed in the war on drugs, calling Rappler’s reporting a ‘false narrative’.

Three years into the war on drugs, Rappler estimated that there were 30,000 related deaths and other media began taking notice of the upstart online news site. Another Rappler article entitled I Will Kill You described a handful of murders in San Fernando and linked them to a Facebook post, allegedly a suggested ‘kill list’.

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'Shark Tank' journalism

Ressa and her team created their 'Shark Tank' database to track insulting terms and Facebook disinformation campaigns targeting Duterte critics and journalists. They also identified ‘Sock Puppets’, fake troll accounts, that negatively influenced millions of real-life social media users.

Rappler journalists believed fake grass-roots social media campaigners were calling for the prosecution of those who opposed the Duterte regime, including senator Leila de Lima who criticized extrajudicial killings linked to the drug war. “They were three steps used against de Lima, attacking her credibility, violently denigrating her as a sexual object, and spreading viral hashtags,” Ressa told the media. Lima was arrested in 2017 on drug-related charges and imprisoned. 

By 2019, Facebook had removed a social media network in the Philippines for ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’ and, according to Reuters, took the unusual step of linking it to a businessman who said he had managed Duterte’s online election campaign.

Like Leila de Lima, Ressa is also facing prison - more than 60 years behind bars if she is convicted on all of the charges against her. While incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte stepped down in 2022, Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, teamed up with Bongbong Marcos. They won the vice presidency and presidency respectively, ensuring the Duterte family’s power base remains strong in the Philippines.

Maria Ressa remains undaunted, however. “We’ve developed a gallows humor about it,” Ressa told The New York Times, referring to her and Rappler team. “At the beginning it’s scary, but the more you talk about it, you rob it of its sting. You embrace the fear.”