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October 8, 2021
International Press Institute (IPI) congratulates its Executive Board member Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2021
• Nobel laureates show the importance of the free press in advancing peace.
Vienna, Austria, October 8, 2021 — Maria Ressa, IPI executive board member and CEO of Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. They have won the prize “for their courageous fight for freedom of expression,” the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said in a statement.
The International Press Institute (IPI) and its members have expressed their pride at the announcement. IPI is a global network of editors, leading journalists, and publishers dedicated to independent journalism.
Hearing the news, IPI Executive Board Chair Khadija Patel said the committee’s decision to award the prize to the two journalists was a source of inspiration.
“Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov are exemplars of this profession,” Patel said. “They are, as well, stories in themselves of the struggles that journalists face every day. It is a recognition of the hard work that they have done. It is recognition as well of the struggles that they face and a sign that their courage is not in vain.”
It is the first time the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to a journalist since 1935 - and the first time that two journalists have won it.
IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said the award showed the importance of high-quality, independent journalism in contributing to peace.
“This is an acknowledgment of the incredible value of the type of journalism that Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov do, a journalism that reveals wrongdoings, stands up to autocrats, and supports the rights of the people, courageously and despite constant harassment,” Trionfi said.
In 2018, IPI awarded Ressa’s Rappler with the IPI-IMS Free Media Pioneer Award in recognition of the news outlet’s innovative approach to journalism and audience engagement and its determination to hold authorities accountable despite aggressive attacks.
One of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists, Ressa, has been the target of repeated legal harassment due to her critical reporting.
Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta received the IPI Free Media Pioneer Award in 2009, recognizing Novaya Gazeta’s struggle to keep the flame of independent journalism alive in Russia.
“It is highly relevant that the Nobel Committee has emphasized the role of journalism and freedom of expression for democracy and peace,” IPI Executive Board Vice-Chair Virginia Pérez Alonso said.
“Well, there is an irony that in today’s world, we have more press and more information than the world ever has faced,” Nobel Peace Prize Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said. “At the same time, we also see the abuse and the manipulation of the free press and the public discourse […], but we intend to underscore how important this activity is for exactly a larger goal: democracy and peace.”
Ole Kristian Bjellaanes, IPI Norway national committee chair, said the award would comfort independent news outlets and individual journalists who often feel isolated.
“This prize is an encouragement to the work of all investigative journalists,” he said. “I am happy that the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognizes the importance of free speech and a free press as a contribution to a freer and more peaceful world.”
Source: International Press Institute (IPI)
|GlobalGiants.Com|
— The editor is an IPI member.
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:18 PM | Link to this Post
