Two journalists win Nobel Peace Prize for defending freedom of expression

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia for their fight for freedom of expression in their countries. 

The pair were honoured "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

"They are 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," she said.

BREAKING NEWS:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/KHeGG9YOTT

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2021

In 2012, Ressa, 58, co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism, which she still heads.

Rappler has "focused critical attention on the Duterte regime's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign," Reiss-Andersen said.

"A world without facts means a world without truth and trust," Ressa said during a live-streamed interview with her media outfit Rappler.

Muratov, 59, has meanwhile defended freedom of speech in Russia for decades, under increasingly challenging conditions.

In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has a "fundamentally critical attitude towards power" the committee said and has been its editor-in-chief since 1995.

"Without 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," Reiss-Andersen said. 

The Kremlin on Friday congratulated Muratov after he won the Nobel Peace Prize. 

"We congratulate him," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "He is talented. He is courageous," said.

"He is committed to his ideals," Peskov added.

Since 2000, six of Novaya Gazeta's journalists and contributors have been killed in connection with their work, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the most prominent among them.

On Thursday, Muratov presided over ceremonies at the newspaper's editorial offices to honour Politkovskaya, who was killed 15 years ago.

Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Putin and the Kremlin's wars in Chechnya, was shot dead on October 7, 2006, in the entrance hall of her apartment block in central Moscow. She was 48 years old.