Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa has been named the 2026 recipient of the Los Angeles Press Club's Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism, the organization announced today [1]. The award, named for the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in Pakistan in 2002, recognizes journalists who demonstrate exceptional bravery in the pursuit of truth.

The LA Press Club cited Ressa's decades of investigative work through Rappler, the Philippine news organization she co-founded, and her recent advocacy campaign against what she calls narrative warfare — the systematic use of social media to undermine factual reporting and democratic institutions [1]. Ressa has argued that the information ecosystem is now the primary battleground for authoritarianism worldwide.

"Maria Ressa has not only reported the truth under extraordinary personal risk — she has mapped the architecture of the lies that threaten journalism everywhere," said LA Press Club president Chris Palmeri in the announcement [1].

Ressa, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, has faced multiple criminal charges in the Philippines that press freedom groups have characterized as politically motivated. She was convicted of cyber libel in 2020 and acquitted on tax evasion charges in 2023.

The award ceremony will be held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on June 28 [2]. Previous recipients include Jamal Khashoggi, posthumously, and the staff of the Capital Gazette.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin