By J. Tuyet Nguyen

Oslo/New York, December 11 – Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines, who co-share the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, denounced tyranny and governments that rule their countries when they received (December 10) the coveted prize which this year was given to journalists for the first time in 80 years. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said both Muratov and Ressa are awarded the prize “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

Muratov, who co-founded and edited Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper, holds Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government responsible for the deaths of six of his investigative reporters, including well-known Anna Politkovskaya.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 24 journalists were killed because of their reporting works and 293 others are behind bars worldwide in 2021.

Muratov said in his speech, “But journalism in Russia is going through a dark valley. Over a hundred journalists, media outlets, human rights defenders and NGOs have recently been branded as ‘foreign agents’. In Russia, this means ‘enemies of the people.’ Many of our colleagues have lost their jobs. Some have to leave the country.

Some are deprived of the opportunity to live a normal life for an unknown period of time. Maybe forever… That has happened in our history before.”

“We are journalists, and our mission is clear – to distinguish between facts and fiction. The new generation of professional journalists knows how to work with big data and databases. By using these, we have found out whose airplanes are bringing refugees to the conflict area. The facts speak for themselves. The number of Belarusian flights from the Middle East to Minsk has more than quadrupled this autumn. 6 flights in the period August-November 2020 and 27 in the same period this year. The Belarusian airline company brought 4,500 people to possible crossing of the border this year, and only 600 last year. The same number – 6,000 refugees – came with an Iraqi airline company.

This is how armed provocations and conflicts arise. We journalists have uncovered how it is all organized, our task is accomplished. Now it is up to the politicians.”

International Tribunal Against Torture

Muratov denounced the practice of torture in prisons and during investigation, which he said took place under the Stalin era and is “alive and well in today’s Russia.”

“Abuse, rape, terrible living conditions, ban on visits, ban on calling your mother on her birthday, endless extension of custody. Seriously ill people are locked up and beaten in custody, sick children are held hostage, and they are pressured to plead guilty without any evidence against them.

“Criminal cases in our country are often based on false accusations and political motives. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny is being held in jail based on a false accusation from the CEO of the Russian branch of a big French cosmetics company. The accuser was somehow not summoned to the court or neither pleaded to be an aggrieved party. But Navalny is behind bars. The cosmetics company chose to step aside hoping that the odour from this case will not harm the scent of the company’s products.

“We hear more and more often about torture of convicts and detainees. People are being tortured to the breaking point, to make the prison sentence even more brutal. This is barbaric.

“I am now presenting an initiative of setting up an international tribunal against torture, which will have the task to gather information on torture in different parts of the world and different countries, and to identify the executioners and the authorities involved in such crimes.

Of course, I shall rely first and foremost on investigative journalists around the world.

“Torture must be recognized as the most serious crime against humanity.”

We are the antidote against tyranny.

Maria Ressa and Mark Thompson, a former chief executive of The New York Times Company, bylined an article published in the New York Times under the headline “We are the antidote against tyranny.” The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte prevented Ressa from going to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. But courts in Manila overruled the government and allowed her to make the trip.

She said in the article, “I, Maria Ressa, co-founded the digital news site Rappler in Manila in 2012. Our aim has always been to pursue the truth wherever it may lead and to report the facts, not what the powerful want the public to hear. But the Philippines is also a dangerous place to be a reporter: 22 journalists have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power, the latest just this week. At Rappler, relentless political intimidation and harassment are daily realities. In less than two years, the government has filed 10 arrest warrants against me. I’ve had to post bail 10 times just to do my job. Currently I am appealing a conviction and potential six-year jail term for “cyber libel.” I cannot leave the Philippines — even to accept my Nobel Prize — without permission from different courts.”

“The growing intolerance of governments and elites toward a free press across the globe is one major cause of the crisis. Global surveys of censorship, arrests and journalist deaths suggest that the picture has been darkening for years. But Zaffar Abbas, the editor in chief of the independent newspaper Dawn in Pakistan, views Donald Trump’s campaign against “fake news” as a further fateful turn for the worse. Abbas believes that authoritarian regimes and populists see it as a green light to step up their own attacks on journalists. If the leader of the free world could show such open contempt for a free press, why shouldn’t they?”

Ressa and Thompson decided to create and co-chair the International Fund for Public Interest Media to support independent journalism across the world.

“We both know from our different vantage points — Maria on the frontline of the battle for free media in Manila, Mark as a past leader of two of the world’s global news providers, The New York Times and the BBC — what a difference great journalism can make both to the individual lives of readers and viewers and to the civic health of a society. We both know how important secure and sustainable income is if you want to preserve that journalism for today and tomorrow. We both know that the great political and cultural battles that free media faces everywhere can only be won if we first stabilize and future-proof its economics.”

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