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Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov
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Nobel Prize Outreach
The Nobel Peace Prize 2021 goes to the Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and the Russian journalist Dmitri Muratov.
This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo.
Both will be honored for their commitment to freedom of the press.
The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said in Oslo on Friday that they had "bravely" fought for freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is "a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace." Ressa and Muratow "represent all journalists who defend this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press find increasingly unfavorable conditions," said Reiss-Andersen.
Muratov
had campaigned for the freedom of the press in Russia for decades and under increasingly difficult circumstances, it said.
The 59-year-old was one of the founders of the independent newspaper "Novaya Gazeta".
Despite the murders of journalists and threats against the newspaper, editor-in-chief Muratov refused to give up the newspaper's independent policy.
He consistently campaigned for the rights of journalists.
Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who was murdered 15 years ago and has received several awards, also wrote for Novaya Gazeta.
The murder has not been fully resolved to this day.
The newspaper accuses the Russian authorities of having no interest in solving the case for political reasons.
The Kremlin congratulated Muratov on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, although his newspaper Novaya Gazeta has often criticized the Russian authorities.
"We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in front of reporters.
"A fearless defender of freedom of expression"
Ressa
used freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, violence and increasing authoritarianism in her home country, the Philippines.
She co-founded the investigative online platform Rappler in 2012.
The 58-year-old Ressa has proven to be a fearless defender of freedom of expression, it said in Oslo.
Rappler reports critically on the deadly war on drugs that the controversial President Rodrigo Duterte is pursuing.
After the announcement of her honor, Ressa was stunned.
"I'm in shock," she told a live Rappler broadcast a few minutes after the announcement.
"I'm in shock"
Maria Ressa
Minutes after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded, the UN Human Rights Office also reacted.
"Congratulations to all journalists," said a spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The award is a recognition of the importance of journalistic work, often under difficult conditions, said the spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani.
The working conditions for journalists are becoming increasingly difficult in many places.
Some countries took advantage of measures during the corona pandemic to hinder the work of journalists.
"Congratulations to all of the journalists out there who are doing their job to keep us informed," she said.
The days of the Nobel Prize proclamations have thus reached their climax.
The winners in the categories medicine, physics, chemistry and literature had already been announced earlier this week.
Among them were two Germans, the meteorologist Klaus Hasselmann and the chemist Benjamin List.
Next Monday, the Nobel Prize for Economics will follow, which is the only one of the prizes that does not go back to the testament of the dynamite inventor and prize donor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896).
The Nobel Prizes are endowed again this year with ten million Swedish kronor (around 980,000 euros) per category.
They are traditionally awarded on December 10th, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
The Nobel Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize awarded not in Stockholm, but in Oslo.
It is considered the most prestigious political award in the world.
329 candidates - 234 personalities and 95 organizations - were nominated for him this year.
That was the third largest number of nominees ever.
The names of the nominees are traditionally kept secret for 50 years.
asc / dpa / AFP
