The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
The symbolism of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize goes far beyond its tribute to Maria Ressa and Dimitry Muratov, independent journalists fighting for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. “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,” said the Nobel Prize committee’s announcement.
Harassment, arrests and even murders of journalists investigating the powerful are increasing globally, and spreading from autocracies to flawed democracies. Reporters Without Borders lists 50 journalists killed in 2020. The threats to the fact-based press worldwide also include the spreading sewerage of social media that drowns truth with lies.
Muratov is editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, six of whose journalists have been killed while trying to investigate the powerful.
Some Kremlin critics have decried the choice to give the award to Muratov, believing it should have gone instead to Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who barely survived a Kremlin poison attempt and is now jailed on specious charges. Indeed, an award to Navalny would have been a spectacular boost to the decimated opposition movement in Russia, where Navalny, along with almost all independent candidates for the legislature, have been banned, jailed or forced into exile.
I wish Navalny had won. However, I see the award to Muratov as a not-so-subtle Nobel Committee message to democracies that he is a harbinger of their media future if they don’t get their acts together. Most Americans have yet to take that message to heart.
Just over a week before the Nobel award, the killer of five journalists at the Annapolis Capitol Gazette in 2018 was sentenced to multiple life terms. Although the man had grievances against the newspaper he had also tweeted: “Referring to @realDonaldTrump as ‘unqualified’ @capgaznews could end badly (again).”
The murderous instincts of Trump followers cannot be taken lightly after the events of Jan. 6, as he intends to run again. Not only has he made “fake news” his mantra (as he spreads the Big Lie); not only does he label fact-based news “the enemy of the people” — but he has a record of encouraging violence against his critics. Who can forget how, when asked by talk show host Joe Scarborough about Putin’s killing of journalists, Trump replied, “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe.”
Moreover the award to the courageous Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media company Rappler, which has relentlessly investigated the extra-judicial killings of President Rodrigo Duterte, holds another message for the United States and the West.
Ressa has been a sharp critic of Facebook’s role in spreading the lies and misinformation spewed forth by the autocratic Duterte. And she also attacks Facebook’s failure to enforce its own policies against hate speech in non-western markets like India and Myanmar.
After getting the Nobel news, Ressa said she hopes for “energy for all of us to continue the battle for facts.”
The battle for facts is already raging full force in the U.S., and will only grow more furious in 2022 and 2024. The awards to Ressa and Muratov are a signal of where we could be heading if that battle is lost.
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