BSS :
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 honouring 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. “It’s like having a Damocles sword hang over your head,” the 58-year-old journalist said. “In the Philippines, the laws are there but … you tell the toughest stories at your own risk.”
She mentioned her compatriot and former colleague, Jess Malabanan, a reporter for the Manila Standard who was fatally shot in the head on Wednesday. Malabanan, who also worked for the Reuters news agency, had reported on the sensitive subject of the war on drugs in the country. If the murder is confirmed to be linked to his profession, he would be the 16th journalist killed in the Philippines since the start of RodrigoDuterte’s presidency in 2016, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Ressa, a vocal critic of Duterte and his deadly drug war, is herself facing seven criminal lawsuits in her country. Currently on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case, she had to apply to four courts for permission to travel to Norway for Friday’s ceremony.
