‘A tribute to journalism’

Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, journalists from the Philippines and Russia respectively, have received congratulations from around the world on winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to protect freedom of expression.

The United Nations human rights office yesterday said the award was "recognition of the importance of the work of journalists in the most difficult circumstances".

 "Throughout the years we've seen an increase in attacks in journalists during the Covid lockdown as well," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva.

"I think I'd speak for the High Commissioner [Michelle Bachelet] when I say congratulations to all journalists out there who are doing their job to keep us informed and to amplify the voices of victims everywhere," she added.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders celebrated the announcement, expressing "joy and urgency" in reaction to the news.

"Joy because this is an extraordinary tribute to journalism, an excellent tribute to all journalists who take risks everywhere around the world to defend the right to information," the group's director Christophe Deloire said from its Paris headquarters.

The group, known as RSF, has worked with Ressa and Muratov to defend journalism in their countries, and comes under regular criticism from authoritarian governments.

"And also urgency because it will be a decisive decade for journalism. Journalism is in danger, journalism is weakened, journalism is threatened," Deloire said. "Democracies are weakened by disinformation, by rumours, by hate speech."

"This prize is a great signal a very powerful message to defend journalism everywhere."

The award will give both journalists greater international visibility and may inspire a new generation of journalists, said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Muratov co-founded the Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, in 1993 and has been its editor-in-chief for 24 years. It is today one of the very few independent media outlets in Russia and has seen six of its journalists murdered during that time.

Ressa, who founded investigative journalism website Rappler, has focused much of her work on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's controversial and violent war on drugs. The former CNN correspondent is on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber-libel case, for which she faces up to six years in prison. Two other cyber-libel cases were dismissed earlier this year.