Nobel Peace Prize winners call for journalist protections
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The two journalists who shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize received their awards Friday during a pomp-filled ceremony in Norway, with each warning that the world needs independent reporting to counter the power of authoritarian governments.
Maria Ressa of the Philippines and fellow laureate Dmitry Muratov of Russia gave their Nobel lectures at Oslo City Hall.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded them the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for their separate fights for freedom of expression in countries where reporters have faced persistent attacks, harassment and killings.
“Yes, we growl and bite. Yes, we have sharp teeth and strong grip,” Muratov said of journalists. “But we are the prerequisite for progress. We are the antidote against tyranny.”
Muratov also used his speech to give a dire warning about the potential for a war between Russia and Ukraine.
A massive Russian troop buildup near Ukraine’s border has led to Western diplomatic efforts to prevent an invasion, which the Kremlin has denied it is planning.
“In (the) heads of some crazy geopoliticians, a war between Russia and Ukraine is not something impossible any longer. But I know that wars end with identifying soldiers and exchanging prisoners,“Muratov said.
Ressa, 58, co-founded Rappler, a news website critical of the Philippine government, in 2012. Muratov, 59, was one of the founders in 1993 of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Ressa, the first person from the Philippines to win the Nobel Peace Prize, offered a bleak assessment of the journalism industry, saying “the era of competition for news is dead.”
“We need to help independent journalism survive, first by giving greater protection to journalists and standing up against states which target journalists,” she told the audience of 200 people, including Norwegian royals and officials who sat with 3 feet separating them for the pandemic-curtailed ceremony.
Normally the Oslo event is attended by 1,000 people.
Ressa, who was visibly moved, couldn’t resist taking a selfie with Muratov inside the Oslo City Hall before the arrival of the Norwegian royals.
Together with the medals featuring the effigy of the prizes founder Alfred Nobel and diploma, came $1.1 million to be shared between them.
Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said free speech and information are “a basic prerequisite for democracy itself.” The laureates “are participants in a war where the written word is their weapon, where truth is their goal and every exposure of misuse of power is a victory.”