Today, October 8, 2021, journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Prize committee chose the two to showcase the importance of free expression and free information “for democracy and [to] protect against war and conflict.”
Dmitry Muratov is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta; and Maria Ressa is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler, an online news website in the Philippines.
The press release from the Nobel Committee stated, “they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”
Celebrating these two free-expression defenders shows a shifting priority and recognition of how important the role of a free media is in furthering our global society.
Maria Ressa – Time Person of the Year 2018, one of 25 members of the “Real Facebook Oversight Board” in 2020 and 2021 winner of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cana World Press Freedom Prize – has also been celebrated by us personally. IFEP spotlighted her face and work in our World Press Freedom Day exhibit “Faces of Free Expression,” a physical representation of IFEX’s illustration campaign by the same name. Her brave journalism exposed corruption in Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's government, for which she has been detained and currently faces seven years in prison.
Learn more about the two on the Nobel Prize website and press release; sign Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s petition to #HoldTheLine in support of Ressa’s journalism in the Philippines; and check out our Faces of Free Expression exhibit online.