Filipino Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has been appointed to serve on the United Nations’ inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.
Ressa, the CEO and co-founder of the Rappler news network, was named among the 10 distinguished members of the leadership panel established to support the IGF, an annual meeting to discuss public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.
Ressa and Rappler have been uncovering the online troll system in the Philippines and leading fact-checking efforts on fake news published on the Internet.
As part of the UN Leadership Panel, Ressa will “address strategic and urgent issues and highlight Forum discussions and possible follow-up actions” along with other members from around the world.
The Filipino journalist joins the following esteemed panel members appointed by the UN Secretary-General to serve a two-year term:
- Vint Cerf of the United States of America
- Hatem Dowidar of Egypt
- Karoline Edtstadler of Austria
- Lise Fuhr of Denmark
- Maria Fernanda Garza of Mexico
- Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia
- Maria Ressa of the Philippines and the United States of America
- Gbenga Sesan of Nigeria
- Alkesh Kumar Sharma of India
- Lan Xue of China
The panel also consists of five ex-officio members, including senior representatives of the current, immediately previous, and immediately upcoming IGF host countries, as well as the Chair of the Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group and the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, Amandeep Singh Gill.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals, in discussions on public policy issues relating to the Internet.
This year’s Internet Governance Forum will be hosted in a hybrid format under the theme, Resilient Internet for a shared sustainable and common future, which emphasizes the importance of internet accessibility, the safeguarding of human rights online, and data privacy, among others.
The 17th edition of the IGF will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from November 28 to December 2, 2022.
Ressa was named co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for Press Freedom in October 2021 along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. She has received various recognitions for her work defending press freedom in the Philippines, including the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize, among many others.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to the Philippines’ first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Maria Ressa, who has been appointed to serve on the United Nations’ inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.
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