- Maria Ressa slammed on Ilda Ignacio’s tweet.
- The Rappler chief executive officer (CEO) called Ignacio a ‘minor blogger’ after saying that the information she stated was wrong.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has granted Rappler‘s Maria Ressa the 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award on November 20.
But not everyone agrees that Ressa deserved that award. Get Real Philippines‘ owner, Ilda Ignacio, said that the Rappler journalist should have followed the law as soon as she registered the website.
“She violated the law on foreign media ownership and did not pay right taxes.”
She was talking about the Department of Justice indicating Rappler Holdings Corporation of tax evasion as when the site issued their Philippine Depository Receipts (PDRs), as “it gained close to P162.5 million from the transaction, which it failed to declare in its tax return.”
Ressa then slammed Ignacio, saying that the information she tweeted is false and proceeded to call her a “minor minor blogger”
Hahahaha – wrong on every point, but once a propagandist, always a propagandist. Keep going with that minor minor blogger …
— Maria Ressa (@mariaressa) November 27, 2018
Ignacio replied, calling Ressa an “elitist” and a “credentialist”. She added that the Rappler CEO thought that she’s a propagandist just because she has a different claim regarding the issue.
“I’m a minor minor blogger just because…I have no idea why she thinks I’m a minor minor blogger.” she said.
Unfortunately, Maria Ressa exposed herself as an elitist and a credentialist in a single tweet. She thinks I’m a propagandist just because she doesn’t agree with my views and claims I’m a minor minor blogger just because…I have no idea why she thinks I’m a minor minor blogger. https://t.co/liTjRO1UWb
— ilda (@ilda_talk) November 27, 2018
Netizens have also expressed their disappointment regarding Ressa’s tweet, mentioning her advocacy regarding citizen journalism.
https://twitter.com/donrapadas/status/1067313897718218753
Maka minor blogger si ate gurl! You promote citizen journalism right? Or does that only suits to people who are anti-gov? And look at the attention you are giving to Jover or even the Madam Claudio page, hindi ba sila ang minor? Yabang neto
— xander 🇵🇭 (@alexanderduca) November 28, 2018