In How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, journalist Maria Ressa, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, provides readers a riveting inside view of what it’s like to be a dissident combating authoritarianism. This engrossing e-book is a political historical past of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, nevertheless it’s additionally a warning to democracies in every single place: Authoritarianism is a menace to us all.
Since the Eighties, Ressa has been a journalist who speaks fact to energy, however her path to success unfolded nearly by accident. Born within the Philippines, Ressa was introduced at age 10 to the United States, the place she was raised by her mom and stepfather. When she first arrived, she felt like a confused outsider however shortly realized she felt comfy in school and will thrive there if she adopted these guidelines for herself: Always select to be taught, embrace your concern, and get up to bullies. Those brave classes would observe her all through her life as a journalist and a critic of dictators.
Upon returning to the Philippines as an grownup, Ressa labored for CNN after which ABS-CBN, the place she was head of the information division whereas the political local weather within the Philippines was turning into increasingly more risky. She later co-founded her personal information service, Rappler, with the intention of integrating social media, citizen journalism and information into old style journalism. However, she more and more discovered that social media, Facebook particularly, and corrupt politicians made for very harmful bedfellows. Through Rappler’s data-collecting and assist from her readers, Ressa found that social media was serving to to gas fascism within the Philippines. Disinformation unfold shortly and extensively as a result of folks tended to share data (even lies) when sturdy feelings have been connected to the content material. When she introduced this to Facebook’s consideration, they dismissed her considerations.
With the assistance of these disinformation campaigns, Rodrigo Duterte was elected president of the Philippines in 2016. He received in a landslide based mostly on false guarantees of combating crime and corruption. In actuality, he was shutting down press freedoms, ordering ugly extra-judicial killings and handing out authorities positions to loyalists and corrupt officers. Ressa’s scrutiny of his administration has led to two arrests for cyber libel; she has been convicted and is presently awaiting her enchantment.
The distinctive particulars on this memoir are each tactile and chronic; you possibly can nearly really feel and scent the blood as Ressa describes a crime scene. Her capacity to recount the finer particulars of some of the scariest moments of her life (reminiscent of witnessing a navy coup) is nothing brief of breathtaking. Highly researched but accessible, How to Stand Up to a Dictator is a plea to the world: The finest means to preserve a democracy is a sturdy press, free from corruption and disinformation.
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