Nobel Peace Prize 2021 Journalists Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa win for fight for freedom of expression
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa.
The pair, whose work has angered the rulers of Russia and the Philippines, were commended for âtheir courageous fight for freedom of expressionâ.
Announcing the winners in Oslo on Friday, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said: âFree, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda.
âWithout freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time.â
Mr Muratov was one of the founders of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993.
He is the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev â" who himself helped set up Novaya Gazeta with the money he received from winning the award in 1990.
Ms Ressa is a leading reporter in the Philippines who co-founded Rappler, a news website that has focused âcritical attention on the (President Rodrigo) Duterte regimeâs controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign,â the Nobel committee said.
She and Rappler have also documented âhow social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourseâ.
The Nobel Committee said Novaya Gazeta had a âfundamentally critical attitude towards powerâ, adding: âThe newspaperâs fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media.â
Mr Muratov dedicated his award to six contributors to his newspaper who had been murdered for their work exposing human rights violations and corruption.
Dmitry Muratov, editor of Novaya Gazeta, attends a planning meeting with the editorial board in Moscow, Russia
(Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)âIgor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natasha Estemirova â" these are the people who have today won the Nobel Prize,â he said, reciting the names of the slain reporters and activists, whose portraits hang in the newspaperâs Moscow headquarters.
In Moscow, Nadezhda Prusenkova, a journalist at Novaya Gazeta, said staff were surprised and delighted.
âWeâre shocked. We didnât know,â she said, adding: âOf course weâre happy and this is really cool.â
Russian journalists have faced an increasingly difficult environment in recent years, with many being forced to register as agents of the state.
Mr Muratov told journalism website Podyom: âWe will leverage this prize in the interests of Russian journalism which (the authorities) are now trying to repress.
âWe will try to help people who have been recognised as agents, who are now being treated like dirt and being exiled from the country.â
Alexander Lebedev, the former publisher and a present shareholder of Novaya Gazeta, congratulated Mr Muratov on his high profile recognition.
Mr Lebedev, father of Evgeny Lebedev, a major shareholder in The Independent, said: âThis is the highest international award one can get personally and as a newspaper.
âIt is testimony to the honest service to oneâs country that has been shown and achieved through the newspaperâs commitment to reportage, itâs support of human rights, the fight against corruption and the challenging of amorality.
âIt must not be forgotten that a huge price has been paid for these principles and this award â" tragically, it has been paid for in lost journalists lives.â
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hailed Mr Muratov as a âtalented and braveâ person.
Rappler editor Maria Ressa reacts after hearing of her winning the Nobel Peace Prize
(Rappler via AP)Ms Ressa is the first winner of a Nobel prize in any field from the Philippines. Rappler has grown prominent through investigative reporting, including into large scale killings during a police campaign against drugs.
In August, a Philippine court dismissed a libel case against Ms Ressa, one of several lawsuits filed against the journalist who says she has been targeted because of her news siteâs critical reports on president Rodrigo Duterte.
The plight of Ms Ressa, one of several journalists named Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for fighting media intimidation, has raised international concern about the harassment of media in the Philippines, a country once seen as a standard bearer for press freedom in Asia.
Reacting to the announcement, Ms Ressa told Norwayâs TV2 channel âthe government (of the Philippines) will obviously not be happyâ.
âIâm a little shocked. Itâs really emotional,â she added. âBut I am happy on behalf of my team and would like to thank the Nobel committee for recognising what we are going through.â
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders celebrated Fridayâs announcement, expressing âjoy and urgency.â
âJoy because this is an extraordinary tribute to journalism, an excellent tribute to all journalists who take risks everywhere around the world to defend the right to information,â the group's director Christophe Deloire said from its Paris headquarters. âAnd also urgency because it will be a decisive decade for journalism. Journalism is in danger, journalism is weakened, journalism is threatened. Democracies are weakened by disinformation, by rumors, by hate speech.â
The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
Some critics questioned if the award respected Nobelâs will and its original purpose to prevent war, but Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said it was justified.
âFreedom of expression is a part of democracy, and democratic systems are proven to be more stable, less likely to go to war with each other, less likely to experience civil war,â he said.
Ms Reiss-Andersen noted the peace prize has gone to journalists before, including Ernesto Teodoro Moneta of Italy in 1907 for promoting pacifism, and Carl von Ossietzky of Germany in 1935 after revealing the Nazi regime was secretly re-arming in breach of the First World War peace accord.
Additional reporting by agencies
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