She risks prison, he has buried several colleagues: Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, two champions of the free press, will on Friday receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize honoring a profession under attack.
Ressa, co-founder of the news website Rappler, and Muratov, chief editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, won the Prize in October for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.”
“You have to take care of journalists,” Muratov told a crowd of children shortly before Friday’s prize ceremony at 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) Oslo’s City Hall, scaled back due to the pandemic. “No article is worth their life,” he said.
The award consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (975,000 euros, $1.10 million) to be shared by the two laureates. Free and independent journalism is under threat around the world.
“A healthy society and democracy is dependent on trustworthy information,” the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said on Thursday, taking a swipe at propaganda, disinformation and fake news.
Speaking to reporters on the eve of the ceremony, Ressa said the prestigious award had not improved the situation in the Philippines, which is currently ranked 138th in freedom of the press by Reporters Without Borders.
