Journalist is first Filipino Nobel Prize winner

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2021 went to Filipino journalist Maria Ressa. She shares it with another journalist, Dmitry Muratov from Russia.

Ressa and Muratov are now in the company of people awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recent years. Among them are Abiy Ahmed Ali, Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad, Juan Manuel Santos, Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman, Liu Xiaobo, Barack H. Obama, and Jimmy Carter.

Except perhaps for Obama, Carter, and Yousafzai, the names are unfamiliar to most people. That goes for Ressa too, at least to the rest of the world. In the Philippines she is already known for her work in Rappler and, in fact, seems to be much hated by trolls and sycophants of the Duterte administration.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ressa and Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression. In a statement on its website, the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that it “is convinced that freedom of expression and freedom of information are crucial prerequisites for democracy and protect against war and conflict.

“The 2021 peace prize laureates are representative of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.

“Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines,” said the Norwegian Nobel Committee. While Dmitry Muratov has “for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is composed of five members appointed by the Storting (Norwegian parliament). The selection process started in September 2020 where the Committee prepared to receive nominations. According to the nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize, the nominations may come from members of national assemblies, governments, and international courts of law; university chancellors, and professors of social science, history, philosophy, law, and theology.

Nominations may also come from leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs, previous Nobel Peace Prize laureates, board members of organizations that have received the Nobel Peace Prize, present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and former advisers of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The public won’t know who the other nominees are because the statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years.

By October 2021, the Nobel Committee chose the Nobel Peace Prize laureates through a majority vote. According to the statutes, the decision is final and without appeal. The names of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates are then announced.

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on December 10 in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Prize consists of a gold medal and diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount, estimated to be US$1.14 million.

It remains to be seen if the courts handling Maria Ressa’s libel cases will allow her to travel to Oslo this December in order for her to receive her award. In August last year, she was barred from leaving the country although she has done so several times before and returned every time amid an increasingly hostile rhetoric from the president as well as the libel and tax cases filed against her.

The Kremlin has already congratulated Muratov, calling him “brave”. Meanwhile, Manila is predictably silent. I say ‘predictably’ because it’s the ego that usually dictates what Malacañang says or doesn’t say.

Congratulations to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov!