“When she found out she was Time’s Woman of the Year, she checked it was not Pike News.”

At first glance, it is impossible to guess that behind the smiling face of Maria Rasa, a short 57-year-old woman, hides one of the great enemies of the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. Rasa, who has devoted her entire life to the press profession, is the founder of Raffler, an independent and groundbreaking news site that has exposed some of the great injustices of Duterte, one of today’s cruel presidents.

Rasa’s extraordinary story is told in the documentary “A Thousand Cuts” by director Ramona Diaz, which followed the journalist’s work for a year and a half. Diaz had no plans to film a film about Rasa, and her initial intention was to document the atrocities committed by Duterte in the country under the auspices of the war on drugs, in which he executed without trial drug addicts and drug traffickers, in what was defined as crimes against humanity. But since this is a story that is already being reviewed and talked about, Diaz realized she needed to look for a new angle, and eventually found it in the determined journalist, who had been on the president’s sights since revealing the truth behind his administration’s crimes.

“She and Raffler began to question the war on drugs. She examined the data and information the government had disseminated on the subject, revealing what was really there. So even though it’s a specific story about the war on drugs and Duterte, it became a global story because of the information distortion and Pike News.” The director says in a video interview with Ynet, on the occasion of the screening of the film in Docosters in the coming month (the film will later be screened on HOT8 and yes Docu).

What are the biggest stories Rasa has revealed?
“She attacked the war on drugs in 2016 because she began to question the numbers and exposed all the lies the administration told on social media. This is what made the president keep an eye on her. She openly said he uses social media as a weapon, revealing he uses trolls to persecute her and propaganda.” .

In some circles, Duterte is called “Trump of the Far East.” Do you agree with that?
“They both have a tendency to be populist, but they are different. Duterte is a politician, he has been mayor for many years and he understands the government mechanism better than Trump. But yes, they both have a tendency to be populist and both are good at making enemies. In Duterte’s case the enemies are traders. “Consumers of drugs, the media and high society. For Trump, the enemies are the media and the Democrats. They both speak the language of populism, they create monsters and then say they’re going to fight those monsters and people buy it.”

Following her revelations, Rasa has become an enemy of the administration and the film shows the sharp attack on her and her actions by trolls, bots and supporters of the president. Among other things, it was alleged that she was transplanted by the Americans and that “Rappler” received funding from foreign sources who were working to overthrow the Philippine regime.

It is already known that governments and entities that want to divide the people use Pike News. How can this be fought?
“War cannot be about content, because then it will be an endless war. Take care of one, and another will emerge. What Rasa started doing is mapping the wrong information and understanding it. You have to first understand where it is happening and then see which systems feed it. This way, it can be seen that the number of accounts on social networks can affect millions. It can be fought with government regulations but it is also a problematic solution because in places where these institutions are weak people like Dauterta can continue to control it. So the solution should be with Mark-Zuckerbergs of the world They need to design their platforms differently, but that means it can hurt their economic model – and once they start talking about money, everything starts to get complicated, because we’re basically telling them, ‘you need to make less money,’ but hate is a tool that makes money. “.

The attack on Rasa not only amounted to bots on social media, but she is also charged with ten different counts of offenses related to spreading lies on the net and tax matters. In February 2019, she was arrested at the airport, in a live-documented operation, broadcast around the world and made headlines, and last June she was convicted of “spreading lies online,” an offense punishable by up to six years in prison. “Totalitarian regimes will always chase journalists, because if you do not want people to know what is going on, you will chase the people who reveal the truth,” Diaz says, “but the more leaders chase journalists, the more they have to lose. Because what are you afraid of? What do you have to hide? “

She seems to be fearless.
“That’s right, there’s something very focused about her. When something gets in her head she will fight it to the end.”

What most surprised you about meeting Rasa?
“Her calmness. Even when she is in the heart of the fire she is able to take a step back and look at the experience from the outside, see the full picture. Immediately after she was convicted of spreading lies online she held a press conference and was very clear and fluent, even though she could go to jail for six years.”

Where does the trial stand now?
“She was convicted in June of spreading lies online. The sentence could reach up to six years in prison and she is appealing. Now she is released on bail, but this week she received her tenth arrest warrant, with another charge of lying online. Broadly, the cases against her are divided into three sections “Main: ‘Cyber ​​Label’, which is spreading lies on the net, tax matters and security fraud. One case can feed the rest and it fights them all.”

Is there a chance she’s going to jail?
“Now that seems like a possibility. No one thought she would be convicted in the first place. Everyone thought they would win her because she’s the site’s CEO, and no longer makes an editor’s decisions. She has other things on her mind. ”

Rasa’s work has not gone under the global radar, and in 2018 she was named Time Magazine Woman of the Year, alongside a number of die-hard journalists fighting for justice at all costs. George Clooney and his wife Amal also presented her with a special award for her work, as part of their Global Justice Foundation. “She found out she was Time’s Woman of the Year on Twitter and she did not believe it. She thought it was Pike News and asked her staff to verify it,” Diaz says. “After she found out it was real she asked, ‘Will it help me or will it get me in trouble because of the attention?’. But she found out it helped her. Global attention helps. That’s why it’s also important for people to see the film.”

Do you think she will run away from the country if this situation continues?
“Right now her goal is to clear her name and fight for her rights. It took her years to build her reputation as a journalist and suddenly she’s called a liar. They convicted her, but she’s not a criminal. It’s crazy, it’s an inverted world.”