How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Foreword by Amal ClooneyIn this impassioned and inspiring memoir, the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and one of the most renowned international journalists of our time chronicles her battle to hold power to account and the price she has paid as a voice for democracy.“A personal hero of mine . . . she’s an important warning for the rest of us.”—Hillary Clinton

For decades, Maria Ressa challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, as a reporter and bureau chief for CNN, and later, through the innovative online news organization, Rappler, which she founded. Within five years, the Philippine government targeted Rappler and Ressa became an enemy of her country’s most powerful man: President Duterte. Hounded by the state and its allies, she was accused of numerous crimes, charged with cyberlibel and found guilty—and may spend the rest of her life in prison.As Ressa chronicles her experiences she exposes how social media companies have accelerated the rise of authoritarianism around the world. She maps a network of disinformation that has netted the globe: from Duterte’s drug wars to America’s Capitol Hill; Britain’s Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyberwarfare; Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes.Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. In telling her story, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?

About the Author

Maria Ressa is CEO, co-founder, and president of Rappler, the Philippines’ top digital-only news site, and has won numerous awards, including the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. She grew up in America and studied at Princeton University before working as a journalist in Asia for over thirty-six years.