Maria Ressa – författare

From the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize comes an impassioned and inspiring memoir that chronicles her career fighting fascism, filled with insights and advice for standing against authoritarian bullies and confronting disinformation and lies. It includes an introduction by Amal Clooney.

Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rappler crowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections.

But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country’s most powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the state and its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines.

There is another adversary Ressa is battling. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is also the story of how the creep toward authoritarianism, in the Phillipines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies. Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. She maps a network of disinformation—a heinous web of cause and effect—that has netted the globe: from Duterte’s drug wars to America's Capitol Hill; Britain’s Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and 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. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous 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?

Introduction by Amal Clooney

From the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, an impassioned and inspiring memoir of a career spent holding power to account.

Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rappler crowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections.

But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy ofher country’smost powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the stateand its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines.

There is another adversary Ressa is battling.How to Stand Up to a Dictatoris also the story of how the creep towards authoritarianism, in the Phillipines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies.Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. Shemaps a network of disinformation—a heinous web of cause and effect—that has netted the globe: from Duterte’s drug wars to America''s Capitol Hill; Britain’s Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes.

Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictatoris anurgent cry for Western readers torecognize and understand the dangers to our freedomsbefore it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous 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?

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER of the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 and the UNESCO Press Freedom Award 2021What will you sacrifice for the truth?Maria Ressa has spent decades speaking truth to power. But her work tracking disinformation networks seeded by her own government, spreading lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate, has landed her in trouble with the most powerful man in the country: President Duterte.Now, hounded by the state, she has 10 arrest warrants against her name, and a potential 100+ years behind bars to prepare for - while she stands trial for speaking the truth.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. It maps a network of disinformation - a heinous web of cause and effect - that has netted the globe: from Duterte''s drug wars, to America''s Capitol Hill, to Britain''s Brexit, to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare, to Facebook and Silicon Valley, to our own clicks and our own votes.Told from the frontline of the digital war, this is Maria Ressa''s urgent cry for us to wake up and hold the line, before it is too late.Praise for Maria Ressa:''A personal hero of mine ... she''s an important warning for the rest of us'' Hillary Clinton''Maria Ressa is 5ft 2in, but she stands taller than most in her pursuit of the truth'' Amal Clooney''Maria is a key voice ... she is so incredible in so many ways'' Carole Cadwalladr© Maria Ressa 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

From the 2021 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and bestselling author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator, this is a frontline guide to understanding, defending, and rebuilding democracy in the age of AI, with 10 strategic goals broken down into 100 concrete actions citizens can take right now.

The window for saving democracy is closing. If 2024 was the tipping point for elections, then 2025 and 2026 have taught us what happens when citizens don t hold the line and Western democracies begin to fall.

It s time for the fight back.

As Maria Ressa knowingly writes, we face three convergent crises:

1. The crisis of truth: Tech platforms and AI have destroyed our information ecosystem, splintering our shared reality.

2. The crisis of order: The United States the nation that built the postwar international system is now dismantling it, launching military operations without congressional approval, killing its own citizens in the streets, and arresting journalists who document it.

3. The crisis of accountability: Institutions have been captured, law weaponised and those with power answer to no one.

The Fight Back is about how we meet this moment, written by someone who survived the dictator s playbook firsthand. It s grounded in frontline experience from different continents, with specific frameworks for immediate action in the age of AI. The postwar order is coming apart, and this book tells you how you can shape the world you want.

Maria Ressa har vigt sitt liv åt sanningen. Men när hennes grävande journalistik avslöjade lögnerna och propagandan som sprids via sociala medier i Filippinerna av president Duterte, blev priset högt. Idag hotas hon av långa fängelsestraff, men hon har inte tystnat. Konsten att bekämpa en diktator är berättelsen om hur demokratier världen över förblöder av tusentals sår, alla orsakade av desinformationens globala nätverk. Maria Ressa visar hur vår tids politiska oroshärdar kan kopplas till ett växande Silicon Valley, och ställer frågorna som får oss att vakna och säga stopp.

Maria Ressa har vigt sitt liv åt sanningen. Men när hennes grävande journalistik avslöjade lögnerna och propagandan som sprids via sociala medier i Filippinerna av president Duterte, blev priset högt. Idag hotas hon av långa fängelsestraff, men hon har inte tystnat. Konsten att bekämpa en diktator är berättelsen om hur demokratier världen över förblöder av tusentals sår, alla orsakade av desinformationens globala nätverk. Maria Ressa visar hur vår tids politiska oroshärdar kan kopplas till ett växande Silicon Valley, och ställer frågorna som får oss att vakna och säga stopp.

Maria Ressa har vigt sitt liv åt sanningen. Men när hennes grävande journalistik avslöjade lögnerna och propagandan som sprids via sociala medier i Filippinerna av president Duterte, blev priset högt. Idag hotas hon av långa fängelsestraff, men hon har inte tystnat. Konsten att bekämpa en diktator är berättelsen om hur demokratier världen över förblöder av tusentals sår, alla orsakade av desinformationens globala nätverk. Maria Ressa visar hur vår tids politiska oroshärdar kan kopplas till ett växande Silicon Valley, och ställer frågorna som får oss att vakna och säga stopp.