Bio

Maria A. Ressa

Author-in-Residence, International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research

S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Nanyang Technological University

Maria Ressa has been a journalist in Asia for more than 25 years, nearly two decades as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta. As the former CNN lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism in the region, Ms. Ressa wrote the region’s first book documenting the growth of Jemaah Islamiyah and its links to Al-Qaeda, Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia. For the past six years, she determined strategic direction and managed about 1,000 journalists for ABS-CBN, the largest multi-media, multi-platform news operations in the Philippines. Her work aimed to redefine journalism, combining traditional broadcast, new media and mobile phone technology for social change.

A graduate of Princeton University, she taught courses in broadcasting and political science at the University of the Philippines and Princeton. Her next book’s working title is 10 Days, 10 Years: From Bin Laden to Facebook.

(Until Jan. 3, 2011)  Senior Vice-President, ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs

Managing Director, ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) & abs-cbnnews.com

Maria Ressa determines strategic direction and manages the largest newsgathering team in the Philippines providing content over a wide range of platforms combining traditional and new media: a free-to-air native language station (Channel 2), 19 provincial stations (RNG), a 24-hour English cable network (ANC) distributed globally, an internet news service (abs-cbnnews.com) and national radio (DZMM).

Before joining ABS-CBN, Ms. Ressa worked for Cable News Network (CNN) for nearly two decades, serving as Manila Bureau Chief from 1987-1995 and as Jakarta Bureau Chief from 1995-2005.  She travelled extensively and reported from her base in Southeast Asia as well as India, Pakistan, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the United States.  As CNN’s lead investigative reporter in Asia, she specialized in investigating terrorist networks. 

Videotapes of her coverage of terrorism were found in what experts believe to be Osama bin Laden’s private videotape collection in Afghanistan.  She is the author of Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia (Free Press, 2003).

Ms. Ressa graduated from Princeton University.  She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines in 1986, where she attended graduate school at the University of the Philippines.  Among the awards she has received are the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Documentary, the National Headliner Award for Investigative Journalism, an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, the Asian Television Awards, TOWNS – The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service and TOYM.  Ms Ressa taught broadcasting principles at the University of the Philippines, and at Princeton University, she designed and taught a course on Politics and the Press in Southeast Asia.