Maria Ressa holds Philippine launch of ‘How to Stand Up to a Dictator’
MANILA, Philippines – Nobel laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, fresh from a global whirl introducing her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, launched it in the Philippines on Saturday, December 10, the International Day for Human Rights.
The third book by the award-winning journalist, How to Stand Up to a Dictator narrates Ressa’s experience on the frontlines of digital journalism – from founding the country’s largest online-only digital newsroom to uncovering the weaponization of the internet.
“How to Stand Up to a Dictator is the story of how democracy dies by a thousand cuts, and how an invisible atom bomb has exploded online that is killing our freedoms,” said Penguin Books, Ressa’s publisher.
From the Philippines, Ressa exposes how social media platforms have enabled and fueled the spread of lies, accelerating the rise of dictators around the world.
“It is, by design, a lie machine,” Ressa said during the launch. “Today, the commodity is our human attention, human emotions, and we are not protected. Do we want to live in a world where lies are rewarded?”
The book maps a network of disinformation across the globe, drawing links from former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, to Brexit in the United Kingdom, Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare, Capitol Hill, Facebook, Silicon Valley, to individuals’ own online presence and votes.
Part memoir, the novel also shows Ressa charting a career by holding power to account and the path she took to get there. But why take an intimate tone and share her personal story, an approach often avoided by journalists? Ressa said it is because the battle for democracy had become personal.
“I know the moment it became personal – when I was arrested. I moved from being a journalist to being a citizen and citizens should not be treated like this,” she said.
Stories of Ressa’s move to America – and later, her return home to the Philippines, the tough calls she made as a journalist covering Southeast Asia and as head of News and Current Affairs of ABS-CBN – give an inside look not only at the Nobel laureate’s life, but also journalism in the Philippines.
How to Stand Up to a Dictator likewise brings readers into Ressa’s personal thoughts and the tough questions she confronted as Rappler faced harassment and a slew of legal attacks from the Duterte administration.
As of December 2022, there are at least seven active cases pending in court against Maria, Rappler’s directors, and a former researcher, including a closure order initiated by the previous Duterte administration. Philippine media and global advocates have included these as part of attempts to stifle criticism and press freedom.
“You don’t know who you are until you’re forced to fight for it. How do you decide what to fight for? Sometimes it’s not your choice. You live your way into it because the sum of all your choices brings you to that point,” Ressa wrote.
Praised as “searing,” “vital,” and “urgent,” Ressa’s book is “for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would.”
As Ressa herself stressed on the day: “This time matters. This is it.” – Rappler.com