Stockholm, Oct. 8 (BNA): The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitriy Muratov of Russia “for their efforts to protect freedom of expression, a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace.”
Announcing the joint award in Oslo on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee declared that the two were “representative of all journalists…in a world where democracy and press freedom face increasingly adverse conditions.”
Ressa, 58, co-founded the Philippine investigative journalism website Rappler with three other female journalists in 2012, according to the German news agency dpa.
The 59-year-old Muratov, whose work is not related to Bryce, founded the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993 and was its editor-in-chief for 24 years.
Novaya Gazeta is partly owned by the latest Russian Peace Prize winner, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev who received the award in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War.
Muratov has already said that he plans to use his share of the prize money to support the Russian press at a time when it is in big trouble.
While none of the individual winners were favored for Friday’s prize, the Peace Prize has been expected for work in journalism for some time, although expectations have been going to an organization such as Reporters Without Borders or the committee. to protect journalists.
Nobel Committee Chairman Berit Reiss-Andersen described the irony of having “more press and more information than the world has ever known” while simultaneously witnessing the abuse and manipulation of the free press and public discourse, like fake news. . “