(SPOT.ph) There's "nothing more courageous than a lionhearted woman," said Oscar winner and human rights advocate Meryl Streep, as she presented the Clooney Foundation's Albie Award for justice for journalists to Filipina Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa in New York City .
Ressa, who faces jail time for cyber libel cases that she has decried as harassment, said being given an international platform by Streep and George and Amal Clooney, is like shining "massive klieg lights" on journalists' fight for truth in the face of rising authoritarianism in the world. Alone, she said reporters only wield flashlights. Clooney is one of Ressa's lawyers.
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Streep stressed to the audience how even after the award ceremony with Hollywood stars and former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, work continues for Ressa. "By this time next week when we all go back to our regular routines. Amal saving the world, George getting his hair dyed, Maria will be back at her desk in the Philippines—she could stay here and seek asylum—but she goes back to do her job."
What Meryl Streep said about Maria Ressa
Streep praised Ressa for putting her life on the line for journalism, from her stint at CNN to Rappler.
"Like too many nations in the world, the Philippines has been bending and breaking the rule of law and it has added itself to the growing collection of nations with authoritarian leaders. But Maria was relentless in her exposure of President Rodrigo Dutere, his corrupt regime," said Streep.
"She told the truth and he called her a bitch and he made a rape joke and he had her arrested multiple times and had the courts convict her. Still, she refused to shut down her site and with each arrest and charge she has become more committed to her work," she said.
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"Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, she wears a big target on her back and a bigger smile on her face... There is nothing more courageous than a lionhearted woman," Streep said.
Ressa accepts Albie Award for Justice for Journalists
The ceremony last September 26 was the maiden edition of the Clooney Foundation's Albie Awards, named after South African Justice Albie Sachs, who worked to end apartheid in his country. Former first lady Michelle Obama presented Sachs with his own justice award that night.
Ressa called for a whole of society approach to fight fake news and the dictators that use misinformation. It's the "last two minutes" for the free press as we know it, with authoritarianism expected to expand to more parts of the planet, she said.
"Journalists are exhausted. We can't do it alone... We need you, we need artists who will help us awaken people in all parts for justice in this search for justice, and more importantly, hope," she said.
"I became a journalist because information is power and the way you get justice is by having information," she said.
"When you don't have facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without all three, we have no shared reality, no democracy and it becomes impossible to solve these existential problems we are facing," she said.
"What we are facing today is a global battle of meta-narratives, information operations that are playing with our biology, our emotions, where lies spread faster than facts on social media," she said.