Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov win 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for press freedom

Alexander Zemlianichenko/Aaron Favila AP The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov from Philippines and Russia.

Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov on Friday won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for their fight for a free and independent press in a major boost to media workers amid increasing pressures on freedom of expression around the world.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, praised the journalists from Philippines and Russia for their efforts to safeguard the freedom of expression “which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace” and recognized the rise of authoritarianism and fake news around the world.

“By giving the Peace Prize to two very courageous outstanding journalists that have proved excellent in their profession really illustrates what it means to be a journalist and how you exercise freedom of expression even under the most difficult and destructive circumstances,” she said.

In a tearful interview right after the award was announced Ressa described it as “a recognition of the difficulties, but also hopefully of how we’re going to win the battle for truth, the battle for facts: We hold the line.”

Muratov told Interfax news agency he intended to donate part of his prize money to help children with spinal muscular atrophy as well as to address the problems faced by journalists.

Rainer Jensen

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

The statement from the committee called them “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”

The press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, itself a nominee this year, said it was “overwhelmed with joy” at the award.

Muratov, who founded the Novaja Gazeta in 1993, has for decades “defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions,” said the committee.

The prize comes as independent media in Russia is facing a sweeping crackdown while President Vladimir Putin consolidates power and crushes opposition members, activists, human rights lawyers and civil society in the run-up to 2024 presidential elections.

Russian authorities have labeled many independent media as “foreign agents” threatening their survival, and have harassed and arrested journalists, many of whom have fled the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was happy to congratulate Muratov over the award and described him as “talented and brave” and “committed to his ideals.”

Since its founding, six journalists from Novaja Gazeta have been killed including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported fearlessly on human rights abuses in Chechnya and was shot dead outside her apartment in 2006.

In 2018, after investigative journalist Denis Korotkov exposed the activities of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Progozhin, a basket with a severed rams head and a funeral wreath and was sent to the newspaper offices. The accompanying note read, “To Novaya Gazeta’s chief editor. Greetings to you and to Korotkov!”

The newspaper has reported on corruption, electoral fraud, police violence, Russian military actions and the presence of Russian mercenaries in Syria, Africa and elsewhere.

In the case of Ressa, the statement said that she exposed abuses of power, the use of violence and the “growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines.”

Ressa, 58, is the co-founder and chief executive of the Rappler news website in 2011 which she founded after covering Southeast Asia for two decades with CNN.

Under the administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Ressa herself and her news organization have repeatedly been targeted through campaigns of online harassment and criminal charges which have been widely seen as politically motivated. TIME magazine named her as a “person of the year” in 2018.

Eloisa Lopez

Reuters

Rappler CEO and Executive Editor Maria Ressa.

Ressa was found guilty of cyber libel last June, and has spent recent years shuttling back and forth to courts in the Philippines, defending herself and her news organization against a litany of charges.

She was issued with 10 arrest warrants in the span of less than two years, and is fighting nine separate cases. Throughout, she has remained a staunch advocate of freedom of the press, saying after her conviction in June 2020 that the case was not about Rappler but about every Filipino, “because freedom of the press is the foundation of every single right you have as a Filipino citizen.”

In an interview with Wired magazine, she said the charges made her feel like Joseph K in Kafka’s The Trial. Still, she has maintained humor and strength through the mounting legal attacks, with her signature catchphrase #holdtheline often following her tweets. Her high-profile international legal team includes Lebanese-British barrister Amal Clooney.

She has also emerged as a strong advocate for violence against female journalists more broadly, and along with Rappler has done pioneering reporting on cyber harassments, online trolls and disinformation and misinformation campaigns.

Ressa repeatedly warned Facebook about the dangers of misinformation campaigns in her home country and elsewhere. She pointed in an Washington Post op-ed this May that she first wrote about Facebook’s problematic algorithms back in 2016, arguing that they have only gotten worse five years on.

At the height of online harassment against her, likely the work of paid troll farms, Ressa recorded 90 hate messages an hour sent to her on social media.

Across social media, Philippine activists and journalists celebrated Ressa’s win as a step toward ending a culture of impunity within the country. The Philippines under Duterte has been devastated by a brutal “war on drugs,” itself fueled by social media and sophisticated online propaganda.

Rappler, Ressa’s news organization, has been on the forefront of documenting extrajudicial killings under the banner of the war of drugs. Last month, the International Criminal Court authorized an investigation into the drug war, saying it represented a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilians.

In 2020, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the U.N.’s World Food Program for its role in addressing food supply crises and trying to improve conditions in conflict zones. The agency was also at the forefront of dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic around the world and the accompanying rise in hunger.

The prize is a gold medal and an award of $1.14 million dollars.

It was set up by the will of Swedish businessman and inventor Alfred Nobel in his 1895 with the aim of celebrating the people or organizations working for “fraternity between nations,” reducing standing armies and promoting “peace congresses.” Over the years, that criteria has been interpreted to also include the promotion of human rights.

Nobel also endowed prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature.

Unlike the other prizes which are selected and awarded in Sweden, Nobel chose a Norwegian committee, selected by that country’s parliament, to administer the prize.

Schemm reported from London, Mahtani from Hong Kong, Dixon from Moscow. Regine Cabato in Manila contributed.

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