Nobel Peace Prize for the first time awarded to Journalists for the year 2021

Nobel Peace Prize for the first time awarded to Journalists for the year 2021!

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

“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,” the announcement said.

 

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

“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 added.

Who are Ressa and Muratov?

Hailing from Philipines, Maria Ressa, 58, is the founder and CEO of Rappler, an online news site combating misinformation and documenting the human rights abuses carried out by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration as part of his brutal war on drugs.

She was convicted of online libel in 2020 under the country’s controversial anti-cybercrime law, which critics say is merely a guise for “cyber-authoritarianism.”

Dmitry Muratov was the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta from 1995 to 2017. Known for its investigative journalism covering corruption and crime, seven of the paper’s journalists have been murdered since 2000.