Some of our readers may have noted the joint award of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, for their work to defend press freedom and freedom of expression generally.
The chair of the Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, in announcing the award said;
Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda. Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time.
Maria Ressa is the CEO of Philippines news outlet Rappler which, despite endless harassment by the Duterte government, has continued to report on events in the country, including publishing stories critical of President Duterte and his especially vicious “war on drugs”, featuring extra-judicial execution without trial. She’s also a member of our sister party, the Liberal Party of the Philippines.
The other laureate, Dmitry Muratov, is a member of Yabloko, familiar to those of us involved in European liberal politics. He is the editor-in-chief of the only significant surviving independent newspaper in Russia, Novaya Gazeta, having edited it between 1995 and 2017. Despite facing attacks and threats , he has defended press freedom in the most dangerous circumstances.
Congratulations to both of them!
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2 Comments
This is a great achievement for the international Liberal movement of which we are part. We should be shouting about this here in the UK and ensuring Liberal voters and supporters know that although we may be a small party in Britain we are part of a much wider and politically successful global movement both within Europe where there are many Liberal governments, and also far beyond Europe where Liberal -minded politicians are constantly under threat.
This prize must also be for the families of all those who lost the lives of loved ones who were killed while reporting on events throughout the world. Being a foreign correspondent is a dangerous occupation and those of us who value democracy and a free press must constantly remember those who died doing that job. We tend to forget the dangers these people face while getting to and reporting news.