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In their Nobel Peace Prize lectures last December 10 in Oslo, Dmitry Muratov of Novaya Gazeta and Maria Ressa of Rappler, journalists of distinction and courage who stood up to repressive governments, warned of the dangers ahead. “The world has fallen out of love with democracy,” Mr Muratov said. “The world has begun to turn to dictatorship.” Ms. Ressa stated, “Without facts, you cannot have truth. Without truth you cannot have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with the existential problems of our world: climate, coronavirus, the battle for truth.”
They were the first working journalists to win the Nobel Prize since 1936, but just months after the ceremony, their warnings ring truer than they might have imagined. Mr Muratov’s publication shut down in March under President Vladimir Putin’s threat to punish media outlets that criticize Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine. On June 28, Ms. Ressa announced that Rappler had once again been ordered to shut down by Philippine authorities after a years-long struggle to expose the flip side of President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on drugs and other abuses.
They are on the front lines of a global competition of immense importance. A healthy democracy depends on a vibrant civil society in which independent associations and groups act as links between society and its rulers. The press plays an indispensable role in holding the system accountable and bringing about change. But a regime that holds a monopoly on power cannot tolerate a free and unfettered press, as Rappler and Novaya Gazeta discovered. Democracy dies in darkness, the words that grace our front page also describe a deepening crisis around the world, from Ukraine to Myanmar, Belarus to Cuba, China to Russia. Journalists struggle with their backs against the wall in search of the truth.
Ms. Ressa, an outspoken advocate for free speech, founded Rappler in 2012, building a sordid news website that exposed arbitrary executions in the drug war and tackled the difficult subject of social media manipulation and misinformation. On June 29, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission upheld a 2018 ruling that Rappler violated the ban on foreign ownership of mass media — which included an investment by Omidyar Network — and issued a suspension order. Rappler vowed to appeal and called the procedure “very irregular.” Ms. Ressa said she would not shut down. She has been subject to state harassment for years. “In less than two years, the Philippine government has issued 10 arrest warrants against me,” she said in her Nobel acceptance speech. “I had to pay bail 10 times over just to do my job. … All in all, the charges I’m facing could send me to prison for about 100 years.” She added, “What was meant to intimidate me and Rappler only made us stronger.”
Her determination is admirable, but no one should underestimate the difficulty of standing up to a powerful tyrant. We hope that Rappler will not stop shedding light on dark corners and that Nova Gazeta will soon return to this important mission.
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