Maria Ressa from Philippines and Dmitry Muratov from Russia have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 2021 for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression. Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen while announcing this year’s winners said that Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose growing authoritarianism, abuse of power, and use of violence in her native country Philippines. Ressa had co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism in 2012. Her main focus had been on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial “war on drug” campaign that claimed thousands of lives. Ressa through her digital media company had documented the spread of fake news, harassing opponents and manipulation of public discourse.
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov is co-founder of the newspaper Novaja Gazeta. According to the Nobel committee, it is the most independent newspaper of Russia today and Muratov as its editor-in-chief has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under “increasingly challenging conditions.” The Russian newspaper has been publishing critical articles questioning corruption, abuse of power, electoral fraud and “troll factories” even when journalists associated with the newspaper have faced harassment, threats, and violence from its opponents including killing of six of them.