Nobel Peace Prize goes to two journalists
Left: Dmitry Muratov at CPJ's 2007 International Press Freedom Awards ceremony, after being presented the award by U.S. journalist Katrina vanden Heuvel. Right: Maria Ressa, at right, accepts CPJ's 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from CPJ board member Sheila Coronel. (left: CPJ. Right: Getty Images)
Sydney PEN is pleased that that Rappler’s Maria Ressa, who featured on the cover of the PEN magazine, and Dmitry Muratov, of Novaya Gazeta, have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee, in lauding the journalists’ “courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia,” emphasised the necessity of freedom of expression as a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.
Ressa, who faces extreme threats in the Philippines as state-orchestrated attacks escalate against her and Rappler, was honored with CPJ’s Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award in 2018. Muratov, who as editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent newspapers in Russia, has been a persistent critic of Putin, received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2007
“These are journalists under personal threat, who continuously defy censorship and repression to report the news, and have led the way for others to do the same,” says Joel Simon. executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Their struggle is our struggle.”