The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov jointly won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for their fights to defend freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia, the Norwegian Noble Committee in Oslo announced today.
A UN spokesperson mentioning the Nobel Peace Prize award to the investigative journalists said at a briefing at the United Nations in Geneva that “the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has just announced that it has decided to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dimitri Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace says the Committee. I would like to congratulate the two laureates”.
The two journalists were chosen out of 329 candidates for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Ms Ressa, who co-founded the news site Rappler in 2012, was commended by the Norwegian Noble Committee for using freedom of expression to “expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines”.
The site now has 4,5 million followers on Facebook and has become known for its intelligent analysis and hard-hitting investigations. It is one of the few Philippine media organizations to be openly critical of President Rodrigo Duterte and his policies.
Rappler has extensively published on the populist president’s deadly war on drugs and has taken a critical look at issues such as misogyny, human rights violations and corruption.
Earlier this year in April, the investigative journalist and media executive Maria Ressa has received the 2021 press freedom award by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). According to UNESCO, Ms. Ressa has been arrested for “alleged crimes related to the exercise of her profession”, and has been subject to a sustained campaign of gendered online abuse, threats and harassment, which at one point, resulted in her receiving an average of over 90 hateful messages an hour on Facebook.
The former lead investigative journalist for Asia at CNN and head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, Ms. Ressa was also among a group of journalists named as Time Magazine’s person of the year in 2018.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa said upon her nomination that “nothing is possible without facts….a world without facts means a world without truth and trust”.
-ends-
- Exterior wide shot, United Nations flag flying.
- Medium-wide shot, inside the press conference room, showing speakers and participants.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Alessandra Vellucci, Director of United Nations Information Service in Geneva: “The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has just announced that it has decided to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dimitri Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace says the Committee. I would like to congratulate the two laureates.”
- Wide shot, inside one of the rooms at the Palais, participants attending the conference “Maria Ressa Rappler Free Media Pioneer”.
- Medium shot of speakers at the conference.
- Close shot, a participant taking pictures of the event.
- Medium shot, Maria Ressa speaking in front of the audience.
- Wide shot, inside the conference room, showing speakers and participants.
- Medium shot, M. Ressa delivering her speech.
- Medium shot, from the back, speakers seated in front of their audience.
- Close shot, M. Ressa adjusting her microphone.
- Close shot, from the back, one of the speakers delivering his speech.
- Medium shot, speakers seated listening to the conference.
- Medium-wide shot, high camera angle, the table of speakers with a large-screen TV showing the conference room.
- Medium shot, inside the conference room, people seated.
- Close shot, a participant listening to the conference using headphones.
- Close shot of a smartphone filming the conference.
Following images are ARCHIVE FOOTAGE:
UN Geneva, International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress (4-6 June 2019)
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.