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Nobel laureate Maria Ressa: The journalist and colleagues founded the investigative medium »Rappler« in the Philippines in 2012
Photo: Bullit Marquez / picture alliance / dpa / AP
"I'm in shock": With these words Maria Ressa reacted to the fact that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Filipino journalist shares the award with the Russian journalist Dmitrij Muratov.
Both were honored for their work in the fight for freedom of the press.
In the meantime, Ressa seems to have overcome the initial shock.
You now commented in more detail on the honor.
In an interview with Reuters news agency, she called the award "a global recognition of the role of the journalist in repairing, restoring our broken world."
It has never been as difficult to be a journalist as it is today, said the 58-year-old.
"This really is for all journalists around the world," said Ressa in an interview with the AFP news agency.
She hopes that the Nobel Prize will protect her and her colleagues in her country from physical attacks and threats on the internet.
"I hope this will allow journalists to do their job well and without fear," said Ressa.
In 2012, Ressa and colleagues founded the investigative medium »Rappler« in the Philippines.
According to the Nobel Committee, this is how she fights against "the abuse of power and growing authoritarianism in her home country."
"Rappler" reported fearlessly about the "controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign" by President Rodrigo Duterte, which "amounts to a war against its own people."
Ressa faces several years imprisonment in the Philippines
The Philippine authorities are also taking legal action against Ressa.
The former CNN correspondent is currently only released on bail.
She faces up to six years in prison for defamation - a fate that threatens dozens of other media professionals around the world.
According to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), hundreds of journalists, media workers and bloggers are detained for doing their jobs.
All over the world there is also increasing pressure on freedom of the press and the danger for journalists.
RSF's record from last year is staggering. At least 50 media workers were killed in 2020. The most dangerous countries for reporters were Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. In total, at least 937 people have been killed because of or in the course of their journalistic work in the past ten years. In the current year, the organization lists 27 journalists and media workers who have been killed.
A look at the international ranking of press freedom is also sobering. In the latest RSF ranking, Germany flew out of the top group for the first time. "Due to the many attacks on corona demonstrations, we had to downgrade the freedom of the press in Germany from" good "to only" satisfactory ": a clear alarm signal," said RSF board spokesman Michael Rediske in April.
In a comparison of 180 countries, Germany is currently in 13th place.
In the previous year, the Federal Republic was two places higher.
Never since the beginning of the continuous statistics have there been so few countries in which RSF has rated the freedom of the press as "good" as in the current report.
Their number fell from 13 to 12;
China, the ex-Soviet republic of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, North Korea and the African Eritrea remain at the bottom with minor shifts.
asc / AFP / Reuters