The City of Geneva pays tribute to the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov

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Dmitry Muratov, Frédérique Perler et Maria Ressa.

To mark World Press Freedom Day, the City of Geneva is paying tribute to the exceptional career and remarkable commitment of two ambassadors of the media and investigative journalism in an era when the freedom of the press is faced with formidable challenges and numerous threats of repression, censorship, propaganda and disinformation. 

Last year, the Nobel Committee chose to award these individuals with the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of “their brave efforts to safeguard freedom of expression” in their respective countries of the Philippines and Russia.

Maria Ressa is the author of numerous critical investigations regarding the abuse of power and authoritarianism of the Philippine president. For this, she was sentenced to six years in prison for defamation.

Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian daily newspaper “Novaïa Gazeta”, the country’s main opposition newspaper, has always been highly critical of the authoritarian excesses of power observed in Russia.

It was only natural that Geneva, City of peace and human rights, recognise their careers, marked by their courage and determination, to ensure that the causes of freedom of the press, freedom of expression and freedom of information win through. “You play a major role in this fight to defend human beings, a cause fervently defended by Geneva for centuries,” stressed the Mayor of Geneva, Frédérique Perler.

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Maria Ressa

Born on 2 October 1963 in Manilla in the Philippines, Maria Angelita Ressa left her homeland with her parents for a new life in the United States, aged 9. Initially keen to follow a career in medicine, she studied biology at Princeton University before changing tack and completing an English degree with honours. Upon returning to the Philippines, Maria Ressa obtained her masters in journalism at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and began her career as a journalist working on the news programme 60 Minutes and in the news department of the television channel PTV-4. She then became a producer for a famous television journalist and co-founded an independent production company, Probe Productions.

In 1988, the journalist – who also has American nationality – became CNN station manager first in Manilla then in Jakarta, a position she held for 17 years. Reporting in the field, she covered major conflicts in the region, including the riots in Indonesia and the crisis in East Timor, and became a specialist on terrorism, tracing the links between global networks such as Al-Qaeda and activists in South East Asia. She also wrote two books on the rise of terrorism in the region, entitled Seeds of Terror and From Ben Laden to Facebook. In 2004, she was appointed head of the news department of the leading TV channel in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, a position she held for six years.

An advocate of the rule of law in her home country, she co-founded the English-language digital platform for investigative journalism, Rappler, in 2012. This information website, of which she is the general manager, was to become one of the country’s most visited websites. It publishes articles criticising the policy of the Philippine regime presided over by Rodrigo Duterte, shedding light on the abuse of power, the authoritarianism and the controversial and bloody campaign against drug trafficking. Via this platform, the journalist also attacks the social networks as vectors of hatred and disinformation. Rappler has won several international investigative journalism awards, but is the object of several legal proceedings.

Maria Ressa was named Person of the Year 2018 by Time Magazine and was one of the 100 most influential people of 2019. In the very same year, she was arrested for the first time on charges of “cyber-defamation”, before being arrested again two months later. After a third arrest in March 2020, the journalist was judged guilty of defamation and sentenced to six years in prison. Released on parole, she filed an appeal, but was subject to seven different charges in total. Despite this judicial harassment and the authorities’ attempts to muzzle the press, Maria Ressa is still based in the Philippines and continues to exercise her profession and to oppose the government. In April 2021, Maria Ressa was awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize.

Dmitry Muratov

A Russian journalist and human rights defender, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, Dmitry Andreevitch Muratov was born on 29 October 1961 in Kouïbychev, USSR (which became Samara, Russia in 1991). Interested in journalism from the time he studied philology at Kuybyshev State University, he began his career as a journalist with the local newspaper, Volzhsky Komsomolets, after having served in the Soviet armed forces from 1983 to 1985. In 1987, he was appointed head of the youth workers department with the renowned newspaper, Komsomolskaïa Pravda. Three years later, he became editor-in-chief of its news department.

After the dismantling of the USSR, Dmitry Muratov, along with other journalists at Komsomolskaïa Pravda, left the newspaper’s editorial team due to a serious disagreement with its new, more restrictive editorial policy and on 1 April 1993, published the first edition of their own Novaïa Ejednievnaïa Gazeta, which became the Novaïa Gazeta in 1995. The journalist initially worked as assistant editor-in-chief of the publication. He travelled to Chechnya to follow the fighting as a special correspondent. In 1995, Dmitry Muratov was appointed editor-in-chief but continued to publish numerous articles himself. A husband and father of three, the journalist lives and works in Moscow, despite a difficult political context and increasing risks to his safety.

One of the rare publications in Russia that is still independent, Novaïa Gazeta is the country’s main opposition newspaper. Published three times a week, a symbol of freedom of expression and one of the only Russian media outlets promoting investigative journalism, this newspaper has brought to light numerous corruption scandals while also highlighting countless miscarriages of justice, cases of police violence and exactions by the army and uncovering cases of electoral fraud. This commitment has come at a high price, with six of its journalists assassinated between 2000 and 2009: Igor Domnikov, Iouri Chtchekotchikhine, Anna Politkovskaïa, Stanislav Markelov, Anastasia Babourova and Nathalia Estemirova. At the end of March 2022, following the Russian offensive in Ukraine and in light of the tougher stance taken against any opinions running counter to the official line, the newspaper announced that it was suspending its publications until the end of the military operations. A month later, the journalists – in exile in Riga, the capital of Latvia, announced that they were launching a European edition of the newspaper in Russian and English, Novaïa Gazeta Europe, “to provide Russians with accurate information”.

On 10 December 2021, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov were jointly awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize “for their brave efforts to safeguard freedom of expression”. According to the Nobel Committee, the Russian and the Philippine woman “are the representatives of all journalists who defend this ideal in a world where democracy and press freedom are faced with increasingly adverse conditions”. According to the latest annual ranking established by Reporters sans Frontières, the situation facing press freedom is problematic, difficult and even very serious in almost three-quarters of the 180 countries evaluated by the organisation. In its one hundred and twenty-year history, this was the first time the Nobel Peace Prize recognised freedom of information per se: without freedom of expression and press freedom, promoting fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world, as Alfred Nobel himself wished for in his testament, would be an impossible task. After dedicating his prize to his newspaper and his assassinated colleagues, Dmitry Muratov announced his intention to sell his medal for the benefit of a support fund for Ukrainian refugees.

Contact

Ms Anastasia Outkina
External Relations Service of the City of Geneva
Tel. 022 418 29 47