The Philippine journalist, creator of the independent information site “Rapplor”, denounces “the distribution of lies by the power of the algorithm” on social networks.
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Journalist Philippine Maria Rena, former CNN correspondent in Southeast Asia, launched an independent information site, on the front line to investigate the violent drift of President Rodrigo Duterte, including the drug war. has made thousands of deaths. It is constantly the target of power, especially on social networks, in a country where murderers of journalists are frequent.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded him on October 8, as well as the editor of the Russian Independent Journal Novaïa Gazeta, Dmitry Mouratov. In an interview in the world, it returns to the threats against Filipino political activists and the danger of social networks for democracies.
How did you learn that you were a winner of the Nobel Prize of peace?
I was connected to an online conference with two other information sites, a Malaysian, the other Indonesian, the way the independent media can be discussed in our countries. I see my phone vibrate next to the computer. I see that the call comes from Norway, I cut the microphone of the computer and answer the phone; OLVA Njolstad who runs the committee tells me that I have the Nobel of Peace with another person, of whom he could not tell me the name because he had not yet been warned.
It was completely crazy, I was overwhelmed. And then he added: “You do not have to talk about it before the formal announcement.” It was necessary to wait with such a secret, what torture! I rack my emotions, reactivated my microphone, and resumed the discussion of the conference until the announcement. It has been energizing and crazy. A real shock, for me, to report.
Why do you think the Nobel committee has chosen you and Dmitry Mouratov?
This is a price for journalists in the countries where they are attacked. And at the same time, the last time a journalist has had this price, it was worse for him. I do not know if the committee thought of that. It was in 1936, Carl Von Ossietzky, who had denounced the German reset, had been deported to concentration camp [and he died of tuberculosis in 1938 in prison]. It was eighty-five years ago.