The 2021 Peace Prize was won by FREEDOM OF SPEECH in the shape of the first Philippine Nobel Laureate, the fearless MARIA RESSA and the equally brave Russian DMITRY MURATOV, two courageous journalists. They stand tall on a planet where democracy and human rights are threatened by autocratic rulers and a swing to the right.
Maria Ressa (b. 1963-) exposes power abuse, violence and increasing authoritarianism in her native country. She heads the investigative journalism company Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012. It targets the Duterte regime’s controversial anti-drug campaign and also fights social media that spreads fake news, harasses opponents and manipulates public discourse.
Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov (b 1961-) co-founded and heads Novaya Gazeta in 1993, the pro-democracy newspaper known to report government corruption and human rights violations. Muratov and his team created today’s “only truly critical newspaper with national influence” in Russia.
In her speech on 10.1.2021, Maria Ressa paid tribute to the “Hold The Line Coalition of more than 80 global groups defending press freedom, and the human rights groups that help us shine the light.” She also mentioned some of the high cost: at least 63 lawyers, 22 journalists killed in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016.
She talks of fighting the “toxic sludge” hate and violence of the information ecosystem spread by US internet companies “triggering the worst of us”. In turn this means we have to work harder in order “to be good, we have to believe there is good in the world.”
Dmitry Muratov quoted in his address the Nobel member of the Academy of Science Andrei Sakharov, who said in 1975 the world had fallen out of love with democracy. Muratov’s speech highlights the efforts of “today’s ideologues who promote the idea of dying for your country and not living for your country.“ He cites a horrific incident of the Chechen war when “five white refrigerator cars on a railway track were mortuaries of the Ministry of Defence containing unidentified bodies. Parents of missing soldiers sat in a small house nearby, as pictures were sent to a screen one by one” – to be recognised by distressed mothers and fathers.
Muratov explained that journalists uncovered the border situation of Belarus initiated by President Lukashenko, Now it was up to politicians to act. His message is important:
“We are journalists, and our mission is clear – to distinguish between facts and fiction.“