Maria Ressa, the Filipino winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a journalist on shifting sand.
Experienced Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, became a symbol of the struggle for press freedom under strongmen.
In 2012, the former CNN bureau chief co-founded a news website, Rappler, that brought together multimedia reporting and social media platforms to offer a daring account of current events in the Philippines.
Ressa, 58, has often been a critical voice of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his bloody war on drugs, which led - according to media activists - to a torrent of criminal charges against her and the opening of investigations, in addition to attacks on the Internet targeting her and the Rappler website.
She was named Person of the Year by Time magazine, along with other journalists, in 2018, in honor of her work defending press freedom. But her arrest more than once and her conviction once for defamation shed more international light on her and drew more attention to her battle.
Rappler has been forced to fight for survival, as Duterte's government accuses it of violating a constitutional ban on foreign ownership in securing funding, as well as accusations of defamation and tax evasion.
Duterte attacked the website as a "liar" over a report on one of his closest aides.
"In order to continue what we're doing, Rappler lives with the possibility of being shut down on a daily basis, we (stand) on quicksand," Risa said in an interview broadcast online after the award was announced. "What we need to do as journalists is not to give in to pressure," she added.
During her campaign, Ressa, who is also a US citizen, remained in the Philippines and continued to criticize the Duterte government despite the risks.
"I don't work alone," said Risa, author of "How to Stand Up to a Dictator," in an interview with AFP last year. "My job is to prevent the roof from collapsing. This has been the case for a while... so that our groups can continue to work," she added.
Ressa was recently released on bail pending an appeal against her conviction last year in a defamation case, for which she faces up to six years in prison.
Two other defamation lawsuits against her were dropped earlier this year.
On Friday, Resa admitted that "in less than two years, the Philippine government issued 10 arrest warrants for me, and the situation was often difficult."
And her position at the head of the Rappler news site means that Ressa is estimated to have received as many as 90 abusive messages per hour online at some point in late 2016.
The threats came in the months since Duterte took office and launched the crackdown on his war on drugs, which rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of people.
Rappler was among the local and foreign websites that published shocking pictures of the killings, and questioned their legal foundations.
The judges of the International Criminal Court authorized a comprehensive investigation into the possible occurrence of a crime against humanity in the bloody campaign.
This led to a new series of threats to Risa, who was experienced in covering conflicts before co-founding Rappler.
She said last year: "I started as a reporter in 1986 and worked in many countries around the world. I was shot and threatened, but not this kind of slow death."
As the former director of CNN's Manila and Jakarta bureau, Risa has specialized in terrorism coverage and traced links between international networks such as Al Qaeda and militants in Southeast Asia.
The Princeton graduate later returned to the Philippines where she took the position of news director for the major Philippine media group ABS-CBN, which also clashed with the Duterte administration.
On Friday, Ressa defiantly defended her fight for freedom of expression and an independent press. She said, "We have to continue to turn on the light ... We have to continue with accountability journalism."
