Philippine journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to defend freedom of expression, Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences announced on Friday.
They were recognized for their “courageous battle for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia”. In its announcement, the Nobel Prize committee stated that defending journalism is essential to guaranteeing peace and stability.
Maria Ressa he uses freedom of speech to expose “abuses of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism” in his country, the Philippines. In 2012, she co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism. “As a journalist and executive director of Rappler, Ressa has proven to be a fearless advocate of free speech,” the award committee said.
Since its launch, Rappler has become one of the most popular media platforms in the country, offering stories and calls for social activism. Reporters from the organization uncovered cases of corruption by the government and public figures and denounced the abuses and violent acts of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
Allegations of extrajudicial executions in Duterte’s drug war caused the Philippine president’s ire. “The death toll is so high that the campaign resembles a war waged against the country’s own population,” the committee said.
In 2017, Duterte declared the news site to be “completely American-owned”. An investigation was then opened against the newspaper, which had its license revoked by the government in 2018. Maria Ressa has already been arrested, convicted of “cyber libel”, in controversial cases seen as a blow to press freedom in the country.
Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov “It has been defending freedom of expression in Russia for decades under increasingly challenging conditions,” the committee said. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and since 1995 he has been editor-in-chief of the publication.
The committee described the press vehicle as “the most independent in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power”.
People who were exposed by the newspaper for corruption cases responded with harassment, threats, violence and even murder. Six of the newspaper’s reporters have already been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote reports on the war in Chechnya in which she denounced Vladimir Putin’s government for human rights violations. She was murdered in 2006 in Moscow at the age of 48.
“Despite the killings and threats, Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov has refused to abandon the newspaper’s independent policy. He has consistently defended the rights of journalists,” the committee said.
The committee chose the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winners from 329 candidates. Journalists will share the prize of 10 million SEK (approximately R$6.3 million).
Who are the 2021 Nobel Prize winners
The winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature was Zanzibar-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of several works dealing with the issue of refugees and immigrants.
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Benjamin List and David WC MacMillan, scientists who developed a tool for building molecules that led to advances in the pharmaceutical industry and the creation of “greener” compounds.
The Nobel Prize in Physics was announced on Tuesday to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi. The Committee said that their work is essential to understanding the changes in the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences those changes.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their studies of how the human body perceives heat and touch, which led to the development of pain relievers.
The winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced on Monday (11).
Who has already won the Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 102 times to 137 laureates between 1901 and 2021, 109 of which are individuals and 28 organizations. Remind who won the award in the last ten years:
- 2020: World Food Program
- 2019: Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, for his “initiative to resolve the border conflict with Eritrea”
- 2018: Denis Mukwege (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nadia Murad (Iraq), “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”
- 2017: International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
- 2016: Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, for “efforts to bring the country’s 50+ year civil war to an end”
- 2015: Quartet for the Tunisian National Dialogue, for “decisive contribution to building a pluralist democracy” in the country
- 2014: Kailash Satyarthi (India) and Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan), “for their struggle against the repression of children and youth and for the right of all children to education”
- 2013: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
- 2012: European Union, “for more than six decades contributing to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”
- 2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, “for their non-violent fight for the safety of women”