“A Thousand Cuts”, the documentary film about the first Filipino Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler founder Maria Ressa and her fight for press freedom in the Philippines, has won the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Journalism Award.
The documentary directed, produced, and written by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz was honored in the International Television category in this year’s annual Journalism Awards which recognize outstanding reporting on human rights and social justice issues.
Diaz’s film features the story of Nobel-winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa who risks her life for the sake of press freedom in the Philippines.
The acclaimed documentary examines Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks on news media outlets and journalists, including Ressa, the CEO and co-founder of the independent news site Rappler, and her colleagues who are known for their unflinching coverage of President Duterte’s war on drugs in the country.
“A Thousand Cuts” and this year’s winners of the RFK Book and Journalism Awards were selected in student and professional categories from over 350 entries across print, broadcast, and new media categories and were announced in a virtual ceremony on May 24, 2022.
The RFK Awards’ judges called “A Thousand Cuts” an “excellent documentary film both journalistically and in terms of its realization,” saying that the film “raises awareness of the political and societal problems in the Philippines, and how social media is used [to spread] lies of authoritarianism,” according to the report published by American public broadcast service PBS.
Launched in 1969 by the journalists who covered Kennedy’s presidential campaign, the prestigious RFK Journalism Awards celebrates media professionals whose work explores issues of human rights, social justice, and the power of individual action.
Maria Ressa was named co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
“A Thousand Cuts” earlier won the Global Impact Award at the 36th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, while the Filipino docu-film “Aswang” by Alyx Ayn Arumpac, which focuses on human rights abuses in the Philippines, won the Coup de cœur du Jury award in France.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz and the team behind “A Thousand Cuts,” the documentary film about the first Filipino Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler founder Maria Ressa, for winning a 2022 Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Journalism Award and WATCH the full documentary here!
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