The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on Friday. It is the first time in history that a peace prize has been given for a non-governmental organization.
The nobel peace prize 2021 winner is an award given to those who have contributed significantly towards the advancement of peace in the world.
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Journalists who support a free press are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia were honored for their contributions to the promotion of freedom of speech in their respective nations.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has chosen to give Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for their efforts to protect freedom of speech, which is a prerequisite for democracy and long-term peace. Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their brave struggle for freedom of speech in the Philippines and Russia, respectively.
Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia were honored for their contributions to the promotion of freedom of speech in their respective nations. CreditCredit… NTB/Heiko Junge via Reuters
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize on Friday to two journalists thousands of miles apart for their tireless efforts to hold the powerful to account, in an effort to bolster press freedoms as journalists face increasing pressure from authoritarian governments and other hostile forces.
The journalists were honored for “their brave struggle for freedom of speech, which is a prerequisite for democracy and enduring peace,” according to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia.
In a statement issued following the decision in Oslo, the committee stated, “They are representations of all journalists who stand up for this principle in a world where democracy and freedom of the press confront increasingly difficult circumstances.”
Ms. Ressa, a Fulbright scholar who was awarded Person of the Year by Time magazine in 2018 for her crusading efforts against misinformation, has been a persistent thorn in the side of her country’s authoritarian president, Rodrigo Duterte.
Rappler, the investigative journalism digital media firm she co-founded, has uncovered government wrongdoing and investigated the financial assets and possible conflicts of interest of prominent politicians. It has also made significant contributions to the Duterte administration’s brutal anti-drug campaign.
The committee said that “the number of fatalities is so great that the campaign resembles a war conducted against the country’s own people.” “Ms. Ressa and Rappler have also exposed how social media is being used to disseminate false news, bully opponents, and influence public debate,” according to the statement.
Ms. Ressa expressed her gratitude for the prize on Rappler’s Facebook Live platform, saying she hoped it was a “recognition of how tough it is to be a journalist today.”
“This is for you, Rappler,” she added softly, adding that she hoped for “energy for all of us to continue the fight for facts.”
Maria Ressa at the Rappler headquarters in Pasig City, Metro Manila’s eastern outskirts, in 2018. Credit… The New York Times’ Jes Aznar
In 2019, Dmitri Muratov visited Moscow. Credit… Associated Press/Dmitry Serebryakov
For decades, Mr. Muratov has fought for freedom of expression in Russia, laboring under increasingly harsh circumstances.
In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and since 1995, he has served as its editor in chief. The journal has continued to publish despite a torrent of abuse, threats, violence, and even deaths.
Six of the newspaper’s journalists have been murdered since its inception, according to the committee, including Anna Politkovskaya, who published illuminating stories on the Chechen war.
“Despite the assassinations and threats, Muratov, the newspaper’s editor in chief, has refused to forsake the paper’s independent position,” the committee said. “He has repeatedly supported journalists’ freedom to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they follow the profession’s professional and ethical norms.”
Mr. Muratov expressed astonishment upon receiving the prize. He informed Russian media that while fighting with one of his journalists on Friday, he missed numerous anonymous calls from Norway; in the end, his press assistant gave him a heads-up seconds before the announcement.
He said he would give a portion of the award money to the battle against spinal muscular atrophy, a subject he has long supported, as well as to assist journalists under Russian government pressure.
Mr. Muratov told Podyom, a Russian news website, that “we will use this prize to fight for Russian media, which they are currently attempting to suppress.”
The Nobel committee selected from a pool of 329 applicants, one of the biggest in the prize’s 126-year history. Climate campaigners, political dissidents, and scientists whose work helped combat the Covid-19 epidemic were among those considered favorites for this year.
“Free, independent, and fact-based media helps to guard against misuse of power, falsehoods, and war propaganda,” the committee said in its citation.
“It will be impossible to promote brotherhood between countries, disarmament, and a better global order to succeed in our time without freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” the committee stated.
After the country’s biggest broadcast network was officially shut down last year, supporters and workers of ABS-CBN protested in Manila in February 2020. Credit… Getty Images/Basilio Sepe/Agence France-Presse
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov, at a time when authoritarian regimes are expanding their influence and the phrase “fake news” is being used to stifle opposing viewpoints across the globe.
Ms. Ressa is facing numerous criminal accusations as a result of her news outlet Rappler’s criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Both she and Mr. Muratov, whose Novaya Gazeta newspaper has been a vocal opponent of President Vladimir V. Putin, work for administrations that employ a variety of tactics to silence critics, ranging from oppressive laws to arrests.
Both UNESCO and the Council of Europe released papers last year condemning the loss of media freedom. They highlighted an increase in police assaults on journalists covering demonstrations, including intimidation and beatings, as well as the passage of so-called “fake news” legislation in countries ranging from Hungary to Russia, which may be used to stifle genuine reporting.
NEWS FLASH: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has chosen to give Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for their efforts to protect freedom of speech, which is a prerequisite for democracy and enduring peace. #NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/KHeGG9YOTT #NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize
The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) will be awarded on October 8, 2021.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 274 journalists were imprisoned in 2020, the greatest number since 1992, and “the number of journalists targeted for assassination in retaliation for their work more than doubled in 2020.”
In its 2020 report, the V-Dem Institute, a Swedish group that monitors democratic indicators, said that “media restriction and civil society repression” were “usually the first step in a long path” toward authoritarianism, and therefore “an early warning signal for what may still come.”
According to the study, “32 nations are significantly deteriorating in terms of media freedom, compared to just 19 only three years ago.”
Authoritarian regimes have sought shelter in “anti-press rhetoric from the United States,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Former President Trump’s phrase “fake news” has been utilized by leaders such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and Hungary’s Viktor Orban to disparage the press in general.
The presence of a rising amount of misinformation on the internet has become a tool for undermining genuine and challenging journalism that sticks to the truth, particularly for the growing number of regimes across the globe that will not tolerate criticism.
The Council of Europe and the Committee to Protect Journalists have both voiced worry about how the Covid-19 epidemic has resulted in press freedom breaches.
“Despite the significance of media freedom, which has probably never been more essential than during this public health catastrophe,” Scott Griffen, deputy director of the International Press Institute, stated earlier this year, “the epidemic has led to an assortment of reporting limitations.”
Censorship, restrictive laws, intimidation, and, as in Egypt’s case, broad suspension of any social media accounts or websites considered to pose a national security danger are among the oppressive tactics used to frighten the press.
“I am thankful to the Nobel Committee for putting a light on her tremendous bravery,” Amal Clooney, a British international human rights lawyer, said of her client, Ms. Ressa. She went on to say that she believes “this award contributes to the protection of the press throughout the globe.”
“Free, independent, and fact-based journalism helps to guard against abuse of power, falsehoods, and war propaganda,” Nobel committee head Berit Reiss-Andersen said in announcing the prize. It would be impossible to effectively foster international brotherhood without freedom of speech and the press.”
Daphne Caruana Galizia of Malta, Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, and Peter R. de Vries of the Netherlands were among the notable journalists killed in recent years. All of them had made it their mission to expose unpleasant facts.
Maria Ressa in Manila, Philippines, in 2019. Credit… Associated Press/Aaron Favila
Maria Ressa said on Friday that receiving the Nobel Peace Prize recognized the risks of working as a journalist at a time when press freedom is under assault.
Ms. Ressa said she was “breathless, astonished, and delighted” when she learned of the award, which she shared with Russian journalist Dmitri A. Muratov, in an interview. She claimed she was in the midst of a live panel discussion on a PBS documentary — which follows her battles in the Philippines’ press war launched by President Rodrigo Duterte — when she received the call informing her that she had won the prize.
Ms. Ressa remarked, “I didn’t know how to respond at first, and then, wow.” “When the audience applauded and asked for my response, it struck me. We’ve been through so much in the past five and a half years, and now this. “These extreme highs and lows are driving me insane.”
The Philippine government has issued ten arrest orders against Ms. Ressa, a co-founder of the independent news site Rappler, with seven legal cases still ongoing, according to Ms. Ressa. Her past four requests to go abroad have been denied by the authorities, thereby banning her from doing so.
“I’ve simply watched my liberties progressively being stripped away,” she said. “What we’re witnessing is a thousand wounds to our democracy’s body politic.”
The Nobel committee demonstrated to the world “how hazardous it is to be a journalist today” by choosing two journalists for the Peace Prize, according to Ms. Ressa. We’ve never been under such siege as we have been in recent years.”
Ms. Ressa mentioned Mr. Duterte’s massive drug campaign earlier on her publication’s Facebook Live feature, which Rappler has widely covered, finding evidence of extrajudicial executions.
She described it as a “moment of existential importance, the preservation of our democracy in the Philippines, the protection of our rights, human rights, and the reality that we have no clue how many people have been murdered in a terrible drug war.”
She said that police have given contradictory statistics on the number of persons murdered during the drug campaign, while rights organizations have claimed that the real toll may be as high as 30,000.
“At a time when accountability matters, this hall of mirrors needs to change,” she added. “And I believe that as journalists, all we have to do is maintain the line.”
“You can’t have truth until you have facts,” she said. “You don’t believe in yourself. Trust is what binds us together so that we can address the difficult issues that our world faces today.”
In April, municipal employees in St. Petersburg, Russia, painted over a graffiti image of opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny. Credit… Shutterstock/Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
Reactions in Russia were varied in the hours after Dmitri A. Muratov was given the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, revealing a profound split among the Kremlin’s beleaguered opponents on how to effectively combat an increasingly authoritarian regime.
Many Russians congratulated Mr. Muratov on his prize and praised the achievement of his newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, which has published hard-hitting investigations under enormous pressure since its inception almost three decades ago. Supporters of imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who was poisoned last year in an operation allegedly orchestrated by Russian security agencies and then imprisoned, were especially upset.
While Mr. Muratov has become more disillusioned with Russian politics, he has tried to interact with the Kremlin in some manner. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s top spokesperson, expressed his gratitude by congratulating him on the honor.
Hard-line dissidents like Mr. Navalny, who refuses to cooperate with the authorities from his jail cell, have been enraged by this more conciliatory attitude. Mr. Navalny attempted to create a “smart voting” platform for Russia’s legislative elections in September, but the Kremlin labeled it “extremist,” forcing Google and Apple to delete applications linked to the app store.
Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation project manager Ruslan Shaveddinov said, “Instead of pompous and hypocritical statements about ‘freedom,’ they should defend a person who survived the assassination attempt and is now being held captive by the murderers.”
Mr. Muratov is a member of the Yabloko, a liberal party that opposed the “smart voting” proposal. This was partly due to the app’s recommendation that all opposition parties choose one candidate who had the best chance of defeating Mr. Putin’s United Russia party. Many of the suggested candidates were members of the Communist Party, which Mr. Muratov despised because he felt it harkened back to the tyrant Joseph Stalin era.
Mr. Muratov also defended Aleksei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, who supervised the tumultuous internet voting platform used in the September elections.
Some believe that the decision to designate Novaya Gazeta as a “foreign agent” sends the wrong message at the wrong moment. Novaya Gazeta is one of Russia’s few independent news sources.
“The choice to honor Muratov rather than Navalny is an effort to maintain the greatest possible distance from the present political process,” commented Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter, on Facebook. “They say we don’t get involved in politics; we just defend the concept of free expression,” he said, referring to the Nobel committee. “I believe this is accurate.”
Mr. Muratov said he thought Mr. Navalny should have won the prize in an interview with Meduza, an independent news organization that was labeled a “foreign agent” in April.
Mr. Muratov said, “I think Aleksei Anatolyevich Navalny earned it for his bravery.” “However, he still has his work cut out for him.”
Mr. Muratov said that the Award, which is not given posthumously, was given in honor of six Novaya Gazeta colleagues who died while performing their duties.
“This is the treasure of my departed comrades — those who sacrificed their lives in defense of those who opposed dictatorships and stood up for freedom of expression.”
On Friday, Maria Ressa was seen at her house in Taguig, Philippines. Credit… Associated Press via Rappler
Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist, became just the 18th woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in its 126-year history on Friday.
With women accounting for half of the world’s population, it’s natural to wonder why so few have been awarded the committee’s most coveted honor and, more broadly, why women are underrepresented throughout the Nobel Prizes.
In response to the criticism, the Nobel committee admitted in 2017 that it had a terrible track record.
“We are unhappy that more women have not been rewarded in the broader context,” said Göran Hansson, vice chair of the Nobel Foundation’s board of directors.
He said, “Part of it is that we travel back in time to recognize discoveries.” “We won’t be able to give the reward until they’ve been confirmed and authenticated.” The prejudice against women was much more pronounced at the time. If you go back 20 or 30 years, there were significantly fewer women scientists.”
However, he recognized that there are other issues, such as how individuals are judged for awards. The committee will begin taking measures to correct the imbalance in 2018, he added.
“I hope we will see a completely different scenario in five or ten years,” he added.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to a total of 109 people, as well as organizations. Bertha von Suttner, an Austrian writer who was a prominent role in Europe’s fledgling pacifist movement, was the first woman to win the award. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905, two years after Marie Curie became the first woman to win the award.
It would be another 26 years before another woman was chosen for the award: Jane Addams, the American social worker who is widely recognized as the pioneer of modern social work and a champion of children’s and mothers’ issues. She and Nicholas Murray Butler, the director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at the time, shared the award in 1931.
Mother Teresa was the first woman to win the prize in 1979, followed by Iranian legal reformer Shirin Ebadi in 2003, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai in 2004 and, most recently, education campaigner Malala Yousafzai in 2014.
In 2011, three women shared the award: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s former president; Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist; and Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist who became the face of the country’s “Arab Spring” rebellion.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee selected this year’s winners from a wide variety of 329 contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize in a year characterized by climate change-related catastrophes, political upheaval, and the lasting destruction caused by the coronavirus.
Climate activists to political dissidents were among the nominees, whose identities were not made public but who represented the third largest number of nominations in history. Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and movements such as Black Lives Matter were also considered.
Thousands of nominations were submitted to the committee by academics, scientists, previous winners, and politicians from all around the globe, and the pool of nominees was selected from among them.
Every year, speculation abounds as to who will emerge victorious from the tumultuous election process.
Nobel Prizes were awarded earlier this week to scientists whose work has aided in the fight against climate change and the improvement of the environment. On Wednesday, two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for work that “established the basis of our understanding of the Earth’s climate and how mankind affects it.” Two scientists were recognized for their contributions to reducing the environmental effect of chemistry.
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 18-year-old climate activist, was generally expected to be a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been a leading candidate for the award since Time magazine named her “Person of the Year” in 2019.
There were 95 groups among the hundreds of applications. Last year, the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that is the world’s biggest humanitarian organization, received a $1 million cash award for its work to fight a spike in global hunger during the epidemic.
With the globe still reeling from a pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 4.6 million people, many thought that the Nobel committee could honor efforts to alleviate suffering. The United Nations World Health Organization, which has tried to serve as a voice of authority amid a cacophony of disinformation surrounding the coronavirus, was at the top of several shortlists.
Scientists whose decades of effort resulted in the fast discovery of vaccinations that altered the path of the pandemic were overlooked when the prizes for Medicine and Chemistry were presented earlier this week, much to the astonishment of many. However, other bettors believed Covax, a worldwide vaccination program, would be chosen because of its ambitious, though stumbling, attempts to ensure equitable access to vital vaccines.
By choosing a famous political dissident, the committee avoided entering some of the most geopolitically heated waters. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya of Belarus and Aleksei A. Navalny, whose vehement opposition to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin sparked some of the country’s biggest anti-government demonstrations, were among others said to be in the running.
They wanted to elevate the struggle of reporters across the globe working in increasingly oppressive circumstances by awarding the work of two journalists who persevere at considerable personal danger.
Rappler employees at their Pasig, Philippines, headquarters in 2018. Credit… The New York Times’ Jes Aznar
On Friday, the final day for candidates to submit papers for an election in the Philippines next year, Rappler’s workplace was buzzing with activity, and young reporters were talking about the day’s headlines via Slack.
The crew was then informed that Maria Ressa, one of their outlet’s founders, had received the Nobel Peace Prize by a reporter who was watching the announcement online.
“We’ve been blown away,” said Pia Ranada, a political journalist who has been banned from attending official presidential events due to her critical reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s government.
“I’m simply full of gratitude for this honor,” Ms. Ranada said in a phone interview. We believe Maria’s victory is a victory for our whole news organization, as well as the Philippine press in general, particularly those who have persevered in shining a light despite the current state of government, in which journalists are persecuted for their job.”
Rappler expressed its gratitude for the prize on its website, saying it was “honored and astonished.”
“It couldn’t have come at a better moment,” the news organization stated, “when journalists and the truth are being assaulted and undermined.” “We are grateful to the Nobel Committee for honoring all journalists in the Philippines and across the globe who continue to shed a light even in the darkest and most difficult times.”
Mr. Duterte’s assault against the Philippines’ news media has targeted Rappler, a scrappy investigative and entertainment website co-founded by Ms. Ressa in 2012. Ms. Ressa was charged with slander, tax evasion, and violating complicated security regulations when the news site’s license was withdrawn in 2018.
In July 2018, a judge ruled in favor of Rappler, ruling that the license revocation was unconstitutional and allowed the site to continue publishing.
Ms. Ressa co-founded Rappler with three other powerful women journalists — Lilibeth Frondoso, Glenda Gloria, and Chay Hofilea — who got their start as reporters during the mid-1980s “people power” uprising that toppled President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
They’ve been arrested and have been threatened with death. Ms. Gloria’s family house once had a black funeral wreath brought to the door. Rappler’s chief of multimedia, Ms. Frondoso, was previously imprisoned with her newborn kid.
“We have government officials openly denouncing our journalism,” Ms. Ranada said, “so it’s a big moment for all of us here.”
Associated Press, Theodore Roosevelt, 1906- 1931, Jane Addams Getty Images/Hulton Archive
- 1945, Cordell Hull Associated Press/Henry Griffin
- Sipa, via Associated Press, Albert Schweitzer, 1952
- 1979, Mother Teresa Getty Images/Jean-Claude Francolon/Gamma-Rapho
- 1986, Elie Wiesel The New York Times/Jim Wilson
- In 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama Keystone/Ennio Leanza via Associated Press
- Malala Yousafzai, 2014, through Shutterstock/Brendan Esposito/EPA
Associated Press, Theodore Roosevelt, 1906
1931, Jane Addams Getty Images/Hulton Archive
1945, Cordell Hull Associated Press/Henry Griffin
Sipa, via Associated Press, Albert Schweitzer, 1952
1979, Mother Teresa Getty Images/Jean-Claude Francolon/Gamma-Rapho
1986, Elie Wiesel The New York Times/Jim Wilson
In 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama Keystone/Ennio Leanza via Associated Press
Malala Yousafzai, 2014, through Shutterstock/Brendan Esposito/EPALast month, journalists worked at the Moscow headquarters of the media company TV Rain. Credit… Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina
In Russia, Mr. Muratov’s award comes during the country’s most severe wave of persecution of independent news media in post-Soviet history.
In recent months, leading Russian-language news sites such as Meduza, TV Rain, and Proekt have been labeled “foreign agents” or outright banned, and investigative journalists have been forced to flee the country. The classification as a foreign agent imposes onerous restrictions on the outlets, such as the need to post long disclaimers on social media, putting their survival in jeopardy.
Mr. Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta is the only major independent publication that has not been designated as a foreign agent. Mr. Muratov, unlike some other independent journalists, has explored ways to interact with the Kremlin, and he recently attended a conference of Russian editors in chief with Mr. Putin.
However, he has become more gloomy about Russia’s future political liberties. He has claimed that the strong Federal Security Service — the primary successor agency to the K.G.B. — is increasingly in control of internal politics, restricting the space for protest and independent media.
The Kremlin has been able to clamp down on opposition without generating significant public outrage in recent months. According to him, this has given the authorities more confidence.
Mr. Muratov told the Russian news website Znak.com in August that “the authorities have suddenly understood that most people have absolutely no need for freedom.”
It was just a matter of time, according to some Russian experts and journalists, before Novaya Gazeta was banned or pushed out of business. The journal has made many enemies as a result of its comprehensive coverage of sensitive issues such as human rights violations in the Russian region of Chechnya, environmental catastrophes caused by major Russian businesses, and jail torture.
The newspaper’s supporters believe that the Nobel committee’s acknowledgment would give it a new lease of life.
Even the editor of the pro-Kremlin television station RT, Margarita Simonyan, thanked Mr. Muratov on Friday, noting that he worked to assist sick children.
President Vladimir V. Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters, “We can congratulate Dmitri Muratov.” “He always works in accordance with his beliefs. He is dedicated to his beliefs, he is brilliant, he is courageous, and this is, of course, a high-level honor.”
The issue now is whether Mr. Muratov’s prize — the first Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner in post-Soviet times — will assist to save Russia’s remaining independent media. On Twitter, several opponents said that the prize would benefit the Kremlin by enabling Mr. Putin to refer to Novaya Gazeta as evidence that freedom of speech still existed in Russia.
Mr. Muratov told Podyom, a Russian news website, that “we would attempt to assist those individuals who are currently being labeled spies, who are being persecuted, and who are being expelled from the country.”
In June, Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, published its last issue. Last month, its publisher, Next Digital, announced its closure. Credit… Getty Images/Daniel Suen/Agence France-Presse
Authoritarian regimes and strongmen leaders throughout Asia are imprisoning journalists, placing suffocating regulatory restrictions on news outlets, and putting independent websites out of business, increasing journalistic concerns about the region’s status of press freedom.
Maria Ressa’s co-founded Philippine news outlet, Rappler, stood out as a ray of light.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was known for accusing reporters of deception and “false news,” even stating that they are “not immune from murder.” Last year, his administration decommissioned ABS-CBN, the country’s biggest broadcast network, where Ms. Ressa formerly worked.
Despite this, Rappler has continued to cover the Duterte government with zeal. Ms. Ressa’s triumph was hailed by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines as “a victory for press freedom activists throughout the Philippines, which remains one of the most hazardous nations for journalists,” according to a statement.
“We hope Ressa’s victory draws worldwide attention to the suffering of the Philippines’ local media workers and sends a message that a free, unrestricted, and critical press is essential for a healthy democracy,” the organization said.
Independent news sources have been under increasing pressure throughout Asia, and some have been forced to shut.
Singapore enacted a controversial legislation this week prohibiting foreign interference in politics, giving the government the authority to demand that social media companies reveal user data or delete anti-government postings. The government revoked the licensing of The Online Citizen, an independent website that provides social and political commentary, last month, claiming that it had violated regulations requiring it to disclose its funding sources.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group, Myanmar’s military administration, which took power this year, has detained at least 98 journalists. According to Human Rights Watch, five people have been convicted of breaking a statute that makes it illegal to print or distribute remarks that “cause fear” or propagate “fake news.”
Following a crackdown by Beijing, Next Digital, a media firm that has long been a prominent pro-democracy voice in Hong Kong, announced its closure last month. That was the latest in a string of blows to Hong Kong’s once-freewheeling press, which has been suffocated by the national security legislation imposed on the former British colony by the mainland Chinese government more than a year ago.
Press freedom in India has been undermined, according to watchdog organizations, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, which has used legal threats and investigations to bully media institutions. The government passed regulations this year giving it wide authority to remove digital material, a move that many speculated was targeted at upstart independent news sites that provided some of the most critical coverage of Mr. Modi’s administration.
The Nobel Peace Prize “is a message to governments worldwide that real journalism cannot be repressed,” said Sidharth Bhatia, a founding editor of The Wire, an Indian news site that has been sued by members of Mr. Modi’s party for defamation. “It is a boost to journalists worldwide, particularly those working for tiny, independent websites who confront government pressure and continue to raise tough questions in the search of the truth.”
A picture of a memorial chamber at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper’s headquarters in Moscow, where investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was to be honored in October. Credit… Associated Press/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Six reporters for Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Dmitri A. Muratov co-founded in 1993, have been murdered for their work under President Vladimir V. Putin’s presidency. Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist who was shot and murdered on Oct. 7, 2006, was the most well-known.
Ms. Politkovskaya, an outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his actions in the Chechen conflict, was shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. While a court found many individuals guilty of carrying out the killing, the issue of who orchestrated it remained unsolved. Mr. Putin denied any involvement shortly after her murder, stating that Ms. Politkovskaya’s death had caused Russia a greater difficulty due to worldwide criticism than her life and work as an investigative journalist.
Novaya Gazeta, which was founded in 1993, has grown to become Russia’s most well-known independent newspaper covering social and political issues. The newspaper is owned by three parties: Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the final Soviet leader, who used profits from his Nobel Peace Prize to fund the enterprise; Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, a former KGB agent turned financier and opponent of the development of a new police state; and the journal’s workforce, which holds shares.
Yuri Shchekochikhin, an investigative reporter and member of Parliament, died of a mysterious and painful illness that caused the epidermis, or top layer of skin, to slough off, a rare symptom caused by some drug allergies but which the Novaya Gazeta newspaper concluded was poisoning in its own investigation.
Mr. Shchekochikhin fell ill just days before he was scheduled to travel to the United States to share information with American law enforcement about alleged corruption and money laundering at the Three Whales, a furniture importing company linked to the Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the K.G.B., striking a nerve on an important trend of security services entering the business world. The findings of his autopsy are still being kept under wraps.
In 2009, Russian nationalists killed another of the newspaper’s journalists, Anastasia Boburova, along with a human rights lawyer, on a sidewalk in the capital.
Natalia Estemirova, a human rights activist, was abducted and murdered in the Chechen capital of Grozny in 2009. Ms. Estemirova worked with Novaya Gazeta to compile a list of murders, torture, and kidnappings in Chechnya, which she connected to the region’s leader, Ramzan A. Kadyrov. Ms. Estemirova resumed her work after Ms. Politkovskaya, with whom she had started her partnership with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, died in 2006.
The newspaper’s correspondents have broken reports about the fatalities of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine in previous years.
Pavel Kanygin, the newspaper’s top war correspondent, was abducted and assaulted by separatists, but he returned for on-the-ground reporting for the inquiry into the 2014 shoot-down of a civilian aircraft over Ukraine.
In 2018, the journalist Maria Ressa was seen in Quezon, Philippines. Credit: Bullit Marquez/Associated Press
Rappler, the website co-founded by Maria Ressa and three other female journalists, has grown to become one of the Philippines’ most popular and powerful media platforms, combining reporting with calls for social action since its launch in January 2012. Rappler’s reporters, most of whom are in their twenties, have been particularly harsh on President Rodrigo Duterte, investigating his extrajudicial killings of people suspected of dealing or using drugs, documenting the spread of government disinformation on Facebook, and reporting on corruption among his top advisers.
As a consequence, the website has earned Duterte’s fury and has been targeted by his supporters; Ms. Ressa has been forced to enhance her personal protection and has been in and out of court to face a litany of politically driven accusations ranging from libel to tax fraud.
After years of threats and allegations from the government, Ms. Ressa and a former Rappler colleague were found guilty of cyber libel by a Manila court in 2020. Each was sentenced to up to six years in jail and fined $8,000; Ms. Ressa has filed an appeal.
She said at the time that her conviction should serve as a cautionary tale. She said, “We’re reinventing what the new world will look like, what journalism will become.” “Are we going to lose our press freedom?”
While previous President Donald J. Trump referred to American journalists as “enemies of the people,” Mr. Duterte goes much farther, referring to them as “sons of bitches” who are “not immune from murder.” He has openly attacked Rappler, referring to it as a “false news source” backed by the CIA.
Ms. Ressa, 58, is a dual citizen of the Philippines and the United States, having lived in Toms River, New Jersey, for part of her youth. She attended Princeton and received a Fulbright scholarship to return to the Philippines in 1986, at a time when the nation was moving away from authoritarianism and toward liberal, democratic ideals.
Ms. Ressa was recruited by CNN as a proficient English speaker to report on the change. She quickly established herself as a staple of the network’s Asia coverage. She left ABS-CBN to establish Rappler after a brief time there.
Rappler started sending reporters into the barrios to investigate drug deaths in 2016. The police explanations of the killings frequently did not match witness testimonies, according to Ms. Ressa’s reporters. “Some of the casualties seemed to be innocent guys who the police had set up, placing narcotics and weapons to make it look like they were suspects who resisted,” Rambo Talabong, a Rappler intern who covered the drug war at the time, said.
Rappler questioned the Duterte administration’s death toll of 2,167 at the end of 2016, claiming that around 4,000 additional killings classified as “unexplained murders” were in reality part of Mr. Duterte’s drug campaign.
Later, Rappler reporters discovered evidence that Mr. Duterte’s supporters used Facebook to spread false information, prompting Facebook to remove hundreds of pages, accounts, and groups for “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” all of which were linked to a group founded by Nic Gabunada, Duterte’s social media strategist at the time.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Credit… The New York Times’ Alex Welsh
The yearly announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize winner has captivated the world for more than a century, making the honor a symbol of selflessness and honesty.
However, some of the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s choices have sparked debates that have put a pall over the prize.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was recognized in 2019 for his “efforts to promote peace and international collaboration,” particularly his attempt to end a long-running border dispute with Eritrea. Mr. Abiy talked of the need to “spread seeds of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation in the hearts and minds of our people” in his Nobel laureate speech.
Human rights organizations have condemned Mr. Abiy for launching a violent military assault in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray area two years later. Massacres, sexual assault, and ethnic cleansing have been alleged of pro-government troops, and UN experts say the conflict has exacerbated a famine that has left hundreds of thousands starving.
Even at the time of his award, several experts questioned if awarding the prize to a young leader who had only been in government for a year and whose dedication to peace had yet to be proven was wise. When asked by Al Jazeera in late 2019 if Mr. Abiy deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes the peace accord will contribute to bring about good change for the whole populations of Ethiopia and Eritrea.”
The concerns prompted comparisons to those made about another young, untested leader, President Barack Obama, who received the award in 2009 after less than a year in office. Mr. Obama was recognized by the committee for his “exceptional efforts to enhance international diplomacy and people-to-people collaboration.”
Mr. Obama was described as “one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades” by author and security analyst Peter Bergen three years later, after he led the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya, increased US troop levels in Afghanistan, and increased drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen.
Other choices have also been criticized. Despite his suspected participation in the catastrophic US bombing campaign in Cambodia, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was given the medal in 1973 for his efforts to put an end to the Vietnam War. The prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991 for her resistance to military rule in Myanmar; two decades later, she is better recognized as the elected leader who supported the army’s ruthless assault against Rohingya Muslims and was deposed in a coup earlier this year.
The issues have plagued the Nobel committee, which is unable to revoke a prize after it has been awarded, according to Nobel regulations. Some critics have asked for the five-member group, which is chosen by Norway’s Parliament and often includes retired politicians, to quit and be replaced with foreign specialists.
Kjetil Tronvoll, head of Peace and Conflict Studies at Bjorknes University College in Norway, said in the Guardian this year, “The Nobel brand has worldwide weight, and a committee with world-class skills should safeguard it.”
The nobel peace prize 2021 predictions is a live update of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who will get the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021?
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian parliament, so it will be given to whomever they decide to give it to.
Who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year?
The Nobel Peace Prize 2018 was awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad.
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