Speaker: Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and Benjamin Pimentel at the San Francisco Public Library
Channel: San Francisco Public Library
Date: 2022-10-16

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned journalist Maria Ressa speaks on how democracy dies by a thousand cuts.

Renowned investigative journalist Maria Ressa received the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her fearless defense of press freedom and democracy in the Philippines as CEO and co-founder of Rappler, an online news site. For her critical reporting of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s government and policies, she faces multiple lawsuits and potentially over 100 years in prison yet remains resolved in her fight to speak truth to power.

Now, in her forthcoming book How to Stand up to a Dictator, Maria Ressa maps out a global network of disinformation from Duterte’s drug wars, to America’s Capitol Hill, to Britain’s Brexit, to Russian cyberwarfare to Silicon Valley and beyond.

“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.”

Maria Ressa will discuss the threat disinformation campaigns pose to our increasingly polarized democracies in a conversation moderated by Benjamin Pimentel,  long-time journalist and author.