Fearless Journalists Honored, Accolades Follow

Michael Hedges October 9, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

All awards for excellence, talent or perseverance are welcome. They afford honorees, brief news cycles considered, moments in the spotlight. Circles of family, friends and colleagues expand those moments. Really special awards attract attention more broadly. This is the gift.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced (October 8) recipients of the 2021 Peace Prize. By custom, the Peace Prize is the penultimate event of the Nobel Committee’s work. There were 329 nominees. The Nobel Committee locks away that list for 50 years. This year they selected Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, both journalists working where that profession is challenged daily.

They were honored “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace,” said the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Ms Ressa is co-founder and chief executive of Philippine online news portal Rappler, which has irritated infamous dictator Rodrigo Duterte for a decade, beginning with investigating his penchant for extrajudicial killings. Before setting up Rappler she was Manila, Philippines bureau chief for CNN then moving to Jakarta, Indonesia as lead investigative reporter for Asia at the CNN bureau. The Duterte government has prosecuted Ms Ressa and publisher Rappler Holdings repeatedly for ownership irregularities, defamation and tax evasion. Currently, convictions on those charges are being appealed.

Mr. Muratov has also had difficulties with authorities. He co-founded Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta with a group of newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda journalists in 1993. With the exception of a two-year break, he has been its editor-in-chief since 1995. Former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev donated part of his Nobel Peace Prize (1990) honorarium to the founding of Novaya Gazeta and remains a shareholder in the newspaper. The Nobel laureate for Mr. Muratov coincided with the 15th anniversary of the murder in Moscow of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Five other Novaya Gazeta reporters have met the same fate, several others attacked. Novaya Gazeta is considered the last independent newspaper in the Russian Federation, “with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power,” noted the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

“Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” said Norwegian Nobel Committee chairperson Berit Reiss-Andersen, in a statement. Kudos for the new Nobel Peace Prize laureates from the journalism community and beyond came quickly. The joint award “is a powerful recognition of their tireless work, and that of journalists all around the world,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon in a statement, quoted by the Washington Post (October 8). “Their struggle is our struggle.” Similarly, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) director Christophe Deloire said the honors are “an extraordinary tribute to journalism, an excellent tribute to all journalists who take risks everywhere around the world to defend the right to information.”

“Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov are representatives of all journalists who stand up for freedom of expression in a world in which freedom of the press faces increasingly adverse conditions,’ said Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in a statement. “Ressa, Muratov, and journalists like them all around the world are on the front lines of a global battle for the very idea of the truth, and I, along with people everywhere, am grateful for their groundbreaking work to ‘hold the line,’ as Ressa so often says,” said US President Joe Biden in a statement, quoted by AP (October 8). “This is good, very good news,” said Mr. Gorbachev, “not just news but an event. This is a great addition to our ranks, among the Nobel laureates. This award raises the importance of the press in today's world to great heights.”

“Unfortunately, the prize will not make the cases that she is facing go away,” said National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chairperson Jonathan de Santos to TIME magazine (October 8). “But it could prompt more journalists in the Philippines and abroad to work together and protect each other from threats against press freedom and against the profession.” From Philippine officials: crickets. "The deafening silence from the palace speaks volumes on how they treated Maria Ressa in the past and how they were taken aback by this recognition," said opposition lawmaker Carlos Isagani Zarate Zarate to Reuters (October 9). "This is a personal rebuke on Duterte who was insulting critics, especially women."

Russian Federation chief spokesperson Dmitry Peskov “welcomed” the Nobel Peace Prize honors, referring to Mr. Muratov as a “talented and brave” person who “has consistently worked in accordance with his ideals.” Others were less circumspect. “Such controversial decisions diminish the value of the (Nobel Peace) Prize,” said Russian Federation ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Austria Mikhail Ulyanov, quoted by Canadian public broadcaster CBC (October 9). “The Peace Prize is one of the Nobel committee’s most controversial categories,” offered state news agency Rossiya Segodnya director and fire-eyed pro-government TV host Dmitry Kiselyov, always there with government talking points, quoted by news portal Medusa (October 9). “Decisions like this one devalue the Prize itself, and it’s already hard to make sense of it.” As if on cue, the Russian Justice Ministry announced nine journalist additions to the infamous “foreign agent” list.

“It’s a recognition of the difficulties,” said Ms Ressa on hearing the announcement, “but also hopefully of how we’re going to win the battle for truth, the battle for facts. We hold the line.” Characteristically, Mr. Muratov told a story, quoted by St. Petersburg news portal Lenizdat (October 8). “I was in heated conversation with a colleague Elena Milashina about an editorial issue when the phone calls came in from Oslo. Well, how many of you will interrupt the conversation with Milashina to answer Oslo? So I didn’t."

“We have a strange situation in the country,” he continued. “On the one hand, you see that on Wednesdays and Fridays foreign agents are announced, journalists and publications become foreign agents, and on the other hand, a giant competition for journalism faculties and for our internship. I don't understand why this is happening yet. People who go into journalism, I think, want to be close enough to making life change for the better. I have the most wonderful job in the world.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom

• Hot Topics - Censorship