Truth be Told
The forbidden stories of Maria Ressa and Rappler.com in the Philippines
This five-part series, produced by the international journalists’ consortium Forbidden Stories and supported by the Pulitzer Center, highlights the work of the Philippine news outlet Rappler.com and Maria Ressa. Ressa, the outlet’s co-founder and CEO, has spearheaded coverage of widespread corruption and rampant killings linked to the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. She has been detained by Philippine authorities ten times in the last two years, and faced harassment and persecution in many forms. Ressa was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous and essential journalism.
Chapter 1: The War
The first episode follows Rappler’s coverage of Duterte’s “war on drugs,” which has killed more than 30,000 people, and how Rappler journalists worked tirelessly to expose the government’s false crime statistics.
Chapter 2: The President
The second episode dives deeper into Rappler’s coverage of Duterte, and the investigation that got Ressa and the journalist Pia Ranada banned from the presidential palace.
Chapter 3: The Money
The third episode looks at Rappler’s reporting on financial crime and corruption linked to Duterte, including its investigations into the man currently suing Ressa for cyber libel, Wilfredo Keng.
Chapter 4: The Truth
The fourth episode investigates how journalists at Rappler became the story themselves—as the targets of a massive disinformation campaign led by the Duterte government with the aim of discrediting their reporting.
Chapter 5: The Virus
The final episode focuses on an ongoing story: the Philippine government’s insufficient response to the Covid pandemic, and how Rappler journalists covered the heart of the crisis despite restrictions on movement.