How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future

Ressa’s experiences at Princeton University shaped her personal and professional development. Ressa describes the stark contrast between her education in Manila, which emphasized rote learning and obedience, and the intellectual freedom she encountered at Princeton.

Princeton’s Honor Code—the pledge that all students write and sign on every test, promising to be honest and not cheat, and to hold others to the same standard—had a formative impact on her morals. This code instilled in Ressa a strong sense of responsibility not only for herself but also for the world around her, shaping her values and helping her make quick decisions later in life.

While at Princeton, she immersed herself in various subjects, including comparative literature, Shakespeare, theater, acting, playwriting, psychology, and history. She credits these subjects with teaching her how to cope with life’s stresses and understand her own identity. Ressa particularly emphasizes the impact of theater classes on her personal growth, as they taught her the importance of being present, breathing techniques, and the dynamics of leading and following.

In a pivotal moment, Ressa confronted her playwriting classmate Leslie Tucker for not submitting her own work while still critiquing others. Ressa says this confrontation led to a friendship that transformed her way of being in the world, teaching her the importance of speaking up and challenging unfairness.

The author also delves into her emotional journey at college. In one formative experience in theater class, she released suppressed anger. Afterwards, her boyfriend encouraged her to read the self-help book The Drama of the Gifted Child. Ressa came to understand how moving to the United States led to her suppressing her emotions and driving herself to become a high achiever. With this realization, Ressa set herself two primary goals: to comprehend the world and her role within it, and to reach a state of self-knowledge that would allow her to observe the world while removing her ego. She developed a foolproof “formula” for making decisions: “look at what I’m afraid of, downplay my ego, then follow the Golden Rule and the Honor Code” (35).

Ressa’s senior thesis, a play called Sagittarius, was an allegory about the politics of the Philippines under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who manipulated elections in the Philippines and built a kleptocracy. In the chapter, Ressa mentions the assassination of opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., in 1983, which led to his widow, Corazon “Cory” Aquino, becoming the new opposition leader. In 1986, Marcos declared a snap election, which Cory Aquino contested, leading to the People Power Revolution that ousted Marcos and inspired pro-democracy uprisings around the world.

The chapter concludes with Ressa’s decision to apply for a Fulbright Fellowship and return to the Philippines after graduation, seeking to reconnect with her roots and find a sense of belonging. This would mark the beginning of her exploration of the world and her search for home, both as a physical place and an emotional sanctuary.

The chapter begins with Ressa’s arrival in Manila to visit her paternal grandmother’s home in Quezon City. Ressa reflects on the collision of past and present, the air of decay in her grandmother’s home, and the mutual disappointment she and her grandmother felt with each other.

Ressa’s Fulbright project aimed to explore the role of political theater in driving change in the Philippines after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. She joined the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and reconnected with her childhood friend, Twink Macaraig, now a self-assured woman pursuing an anchor position at People’s Television 4 (PTV4). Ressa notes the political atmosphere in the country: the jubilation following the People Power Revolution and the challenges faced by President Cory Aquino, who faced multiple coup attempts during her presidency.

Ressa started working with Twink at PTV4, where she pushed for better standards and programming, learned the concept of a workflow, and understood the importance of quality control in journalism. She highlights the challenges of working in a culture that prioritizes smooth interpersonal relations and places a personal cost on calling out errors. Ressa also mentions the issue of self-censorship, a habit formed under the dictatorship, and emphasizes the importance of good journalism for the survival of democracy in the Philippines.

As Ressa’s career progressed, she created and led the network’s first news magazine program, Foursight, learning to build strong teams and tackle challenging projects. Later, she joined Probe, a company started by broadcaster Cheche Lazaro, where she further developed her skills as a journalist and leader. Living with Cheche and her husband, Delfin Lazaro, taught Ressa valuable lessons about succeeding without compromising her ideals. She admired their values, such as delicadeza (doing the right thing when wielding power) and utang na loob (reciprocity), and their ability to bridge the gaps between these values and the realities of a stratified, class-conscious, and feudalistic Filipino society.

The chapter also covers Ressa’s work as a freelance reporter for CNN while still working for Probe. There, she faced challenges, such as when a customs official withheld her tapes, asking for a bribe. When Ressa refused to pay, it took a year and a half for the team to get the tapes. Ressa learned the importance of trust in getting facts and building sources, which she achieved through her work with Probe and CNN. Her coverage of the seventh coup attempt against President Aquino in December 1989 showcased her courage and determination as a reporter, as she and her cameraman, Rene Santiago, ventured into the deserted streets of Makati to interview rebel soldiers.

As Ressa approached her 30s, she grappled with heteronormative societal expectations for women. She ultimately declined a marriage proposal from her high school boyfriend, realizing she needed to explore love and her own sexuality. Ressa fell in love with a woman for the first time, and had to navigate complex gender roles and societal norms in Manila’s lesbian community. She reflects on the role of beauty and femininity in Filipino society and her own rebellion against the traditional expectations placed on women.

Throughout the chapter, Ressa emphasizes the importance of honesty, both with oneself and others, and the need to embrace fear and vulnerability. She also touches on the intersection of her personal life and professional career, particularly when covering a press conference in Malaysia where Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad discussed the dismissal of his Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, due to the fact that Ibrahim had allegedly had sex with a man. Ressa asked the prime minister pointed questions about the acceptance of homosexuality in Malaysia. She did not mention her own sexual orientation during the press conference, drawing a line between her personal and professional life. As she continued to work for CNN, her identity became an open secret. Rather than “trumpet it” to the world, she simply chose not to hide it, keeping her focus instead on “other people’s stories” (57).

Ressa recounts her experiences as a journalist and the lessons she learned about the importance of honest, fact-based reporting in the face of challenges posed by those in power. The chapter follows Ressa’s career from her early days at CNN to her decision to return to the Philippines and lead the news organization ABS-CBN.

At CNN, Ressa worked under Eason Jordan, who gave her opportunities to grow as a journalist and eventually led the Manila Bureau. She learned the importance of holding power to account, even at the risk of one’s career, from veteran journalist Peter Arnett. Ressa also discusses the impact of technology on journalism, both in terms of faster reporting and the pressure it put on journalists to deliver stories quickly.

The author then delves into her experiences reporting from Indonesia during the late 1990s, where she witnessed the fall of the dictator Suharto and the subsequent violence that erupted. Ressa reflects on how oppressive leadership and lack of education can lead to a society prone to mob violence and emergent behavior. She emphasizes the importance of investing in education to ensure a strong democracy and quality journalism.

Ressa argues that while there is no such thing as a truly objective journalist, good journalists should lean on evidence and facts rather than seeking false equivalence. She reminisces about the era when news media acted as gatekeepers, and journalists were accountable for their reporting, in contrast to the current landscape dominated by technology companies driven by profit.

The chapter then moves on to discuss the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and Ressa’s investigation into al-Qaeda’s links to Southeast Asia. She explores the concepts of groupthink, radicalization, and the spread of extremist ideologies through social networks. Ressa draws parallels between the spread of terrorist networks and the spread of disinformation online.

Finally, Ressa describes her decision to leave CNN and return to the Philippines to lead ABS-CBN, the country’s largest news organization. Despite the challenges posed by corruption, self-censorship, and the flaws of post-dictatorship life, she was determined to build a strong, truth-committed news organization that could withstand government pressure. Ressa’s goal was to use her experiences to shape policy and goals in a nation transitioning from dictatorship to democracy.