FILIPINO JOURNALIST WINS THE 2021 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

 

By Tony A. San Juan, OCT-Retired
Toronto-Canada
October 9, 2021
 




Journalist and author Maria Ressa of the Philippines was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021.  The award also makes Maria Ressa the first Filipino to win a Nobel Prize. She won the prestigious award together with fellow journalist and Putin critic Dmitry Muratov of Russia. The Nobel Peace Prize was conferred on October 8, 2021, Friday, to the pair "for their fight for freedom of expression in their countries." For many journalists and reporters, the selection of the 2 journalists says "about freedom of expression and the history of dissent in the countries of the 2021 peace prize winners.'

According to Bent Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the duo was recognized for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," The Nobel Committee chair said: "They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions." The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, according to other investigative journalists is "a recognition of the importance and precarity of holding the line for independent journalism in an age of authoritarian populism and fake news.



Maria Ressa, the CEO and executive editor of Manila-based news outlet Rappler received the award for "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression," primarily with her online Rappler which she co-founded and heads. She has had a decades-long career in investigative and broadcast journalism in Southeast Asia. Ressa founded Rappler to combat misinformation and document human rights abuses carried out by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, including during his deadly war on drugs. The Nobel committee tweeted that "Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines." Reiss-Andersen said that Rappler has "focused critical attention on Duterte regime's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign."

Now 58 years old, and a US citizen too, Maria Angelita Ressa was born on October 2, 1963, in the Philippines but moved to the United States with her parents when she was 10. She received her Bachelor's degree in English from Princeton University and returned to the Philippines shortly after.

Her career extends across decades. She has been a journalist in Southeast Asia for over 30 years and was previously the CNN bureau chief in Manila and later in Jakarta, Indonesia. She additionally worked for six years as the head of News and Current Affairs at ABS-CBN, a media conglomerate in the Philippines.

A well-decorated journalist, the Nobel Peace Prize although highly coveted and the most prestigious worldwide, is not the first award Ressa has won for her work. She has been named a TIME magazine "Person of the Year in 2018" and was awarded the "2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award" from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Ressa also received other honors such as the Golden Pen of Freedom and the Knight International Journalism Award. Ressa has written two books on the rise of terrorism in Southeast Asia, called "Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center" and "From Bin Laden to Facebook."

Currently out on bail but facing seven active legal cases in the Philippines, Ressa, said she hopes the award will bolster investigative journalism “that will hold power to account.” She told The Associated Press that “This relentless campaign of harassment and intimidation against me and my fellow journalists in the Philippines is a stark example of a global trend.” “I didn’t think that what we are going through would get that attention. But the fact that it did also shows you how important the battles we face are, right?" she said on October 8, 2021. "This is going to be what our elections are going to be like next year. It is a battle for facts. When you’re in a battle for facts, journalism is activism.”

A BIG, BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO MARIA RESSA FOR WINNING THE 2021 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, BECOMING  THE FIRST FILIPINO NOBEL LAUREATE! THE FILIPINO PEOPLE ARE GREATLY PROUD AND HONOURED OF MARIA RESSA'S HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT! GOD BLESS.

MABUHAY KA MARIA! MABUHAY ANG BANSANG FILIPINAS!!!