Maria Ressa’s book How to Stand Up to a Dictator to be published in April 2022

After Hidilyn Diaz‘s historic, first Olympic medal win, another Filipina has made history for the Philippines in the international spotlight.

Rappler CEO & President Maria Ressa, together with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, was just awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. This makes Ressa the first Filipino ever to have won the prestigious prize that has also been awarded to public figures such as Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.

Fortunately, for those of us who have been fascinated with her courage through the years, we can also take a closer look behind her work that led up to her Nobel win. Her third book, entitled How to Stand Up to a Dictator, is set to be published in April 2022.

The book will focus on digital disinformation

Maria Ressa book
Image credit: @maria_ressa

To be published by Penguin UK, the book How to Stand Up to a Dictator will highlight how Ressa led Rappler, the news website she founded in 2012, during its challenging years under the Duterte administration. It will specifically cover how digital disinformation has had real implications in our lives.

“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,” Penguin UK said on its website.

Ressa has also shared the news about her new book on her Instagram account. According to her, she’s been waking up as early as 5AM to write the book. “Final stretch, writing last chapter of first draft. Have been getting up at 5a[m] to write since April. It’s been painful; it’s made me angry; but it’s cathartic to pull out and look for solutions to the existential problems we face. Inspiration comes in so many faces and places!” she said in a 15th September post. 

How to Stand Up to a Dictator features a foreword by Amal Clooney

Maria Ressa book
Image credit: Rappler

A vocal supporter of Ressa’s work in the Philippines, Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, also penned the book’s foreword.

How to Stand Up to a Dictator will be Ressa’s third book. Her previous books – Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism – discussed her experiences in covering terrorism.

Maria Ressa’s new book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Ressa has indeed been a journalist who has worked on the frontline of many wars in this day and age. From covering terrorism to battling digital disinformation in the Philippines, she inspires us of the timeless deed of fighting for what you believe in without the use of arms, but only with the use of facts and a pen.

We’re excited to get to know from Ressa herself through How to Stand Up to a Dictator how she has stayed courageous against opposition to her work throughout all these years.

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Cover image adapted from: @maria_ressa, @maria_ressa

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