tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/maria-ressa-40266/articlesMaria Ressa – The Conversation2021-10-11T04:10:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695672021-10-11T04:10:59Z2021-10-11T04:10:59ZThe Nobel Peace Prize brings overnight celebrity, but also frequent scrutiny, trolling and persecution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425617/original/file-20211011-27-15dcnnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=769%2C65%2C5680%2C4271&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The two journalists who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize have become international celebrities overnight. <a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-ressa-nobel-prize-winner-risks-life-and-liberty-to-hold-philippines-government-to-account-169564">Maria Ressa</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-peace-prize-how-dmitry-muratov-built-russias-bravest-newspaper-novaya-gazeta-169560">Dmitry Muratov</a> will no doubt benefit from their increased prominence and status. At the same time, the celebrity that comes with the prize will bring a host of other challenges the winners will have to navigate.</p>
<p>I have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315560519-3">researched</a> the impact the Nobel Peace Prize has had on winners in recent decades, both in terms of the unexpected challenges they face in their work and the newfound attention it brings. </p>
<p>Both Ressa and Muratov will likely face similar pressures, especially considering they have worked to combat authoritarianism in two countries (the Philippines and Russia) where the government has actively tried to silence them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-ressa-nobel-prize-winner-risks-life-and-liberty-to-hold-philippines-government-to-account-169564">Maria Ressa: Nobel prize-winner risks life and liberty to hold Philippines government to account</a>
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<h2>How the award immediately changes lives</h2>
<p>Ressa has been lauded for challenging Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly anti-drug campaign. Muratov, a Russian journalist, has been honoured for speaking truth to power as one of the founders of a prominent independent newspaper.</p>
<p>Excitement surrounded the winners after the announcement. Ressa, looking visibly shocked in a Zoom panel discussion, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/oct/08/moment-maria-ressa-learns-of-nobel-peace-prize-win-during-zoom-call-video">shared her gratitude</a> with supporters. Muratov was greeted with flowers and champagne by colleagues.</p>
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<p>During Nobel Week in December, the laureates will receive their medals and the money that accompanies the prize. Each will be awarded 5 million Swedish kronor (A$783,000 or US$572,000). The funds will be a welcome boost in their fight for freedom of expression.</p>
<p>Like many Peace Prize laureates before them, Ressa and Muratov will undoubtedly use their acceptance speeches (and other appearances) as an opportunity to advance their causes and condemn repression by authoritarian governments. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-peace-prize-how-dmitry-muratov-built-russias-bravest-newspaper-novaya-gazeta-169560">Nobel peace prize: how Dmitry Muratov built Russia's 'bravest' newspaper, Novaya Gazeta</a>
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<p>This opportunity carries significant weight: the recordings and publications from these events are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/macp.12.1.129_1">carefully put together</a> to present the prize winners and their messages in a particular way. They become part of an authoritative archive about the Nobel Peace Prize. In short, their words will be immortalised.</p>
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<img alt="Maria Ressa celebrating her win." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425618/original/file-20211011-13-2qmhq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Maria Ressa celebrating her win in the Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Favila/AP</span></span>
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<h2>‘The remarkable powers of an Open Sesame’</h2>
<p>Both journalists have now attained what <a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781861891044">one scholar</a> has called “achieved celebrity” on an international level, or fame gained through accomplishments or successes in a particular field. </p>
<p>In the short term, both Ressa and Muratov will benefit from the enormous international exposure they have received. Their messages will be relayed by media outlets around the world. The journalism profession is also benefiting, given the stature of the prize. </p>
<p>Previous winners were able to reap the benefits of their skyrocketing fame in various ways. For example, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, an Argentine artist and human rights activist who won the Peace Prize in 1980, suddenly found he had access to senior US lawmakers and European government officials.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IpF2RlHxQiQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA123&dq=%22The+Transnational+Strategies+of+the+Service+for+Peace+and+Justice+in+Latin+America%22&ots=CXGzUE9u6Z&sig=SH1eE656yrLOCNSWkIFkIXF6vcM">According to one analysis</a>, it helped him and the NGO he co-founded strengthen the human rights movement in Latin America and contributed to democratisation in the region.</p>
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<img alt="Adolfo Perez Esquivel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425620/original/file-20211011-19-1tkgukf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A speech by Adolfo Perez Esquivel in 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, the 1984 winner, once said the prize had “the remarkable powers of an Open Sesame”. He <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315560519-3">remarked</a>,</p>
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<p>[…] things you said before you got the Nobel Peace Prize and not too many people paid attention. You say the same things [afterwards], and people think it’s pearls from Heaven.</p>
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<h2>Increased scrutiny and tensions with colleagues</h2>
<p>However, celebrity comes with increased levels of scrutiny. The world keeps a close eye on Nobel Peace Prize winners, and outcries are common after even the smallest missteps, especially in the age of social media. </p>
<p>Recently, for example, women’s education activist Malala Yousafzai, who became the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate in 2014, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/06/04/1003236671/malala-yousafzais-interview-in-british-vogue-sparks-anger-in-her-native-pakistan">questioned the institution of marriage</a> in a British Vogue interview, provoking fury in her native Pakistan.</p>
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<p>How the prize winnings are spent is always a major focus of attention. This extends to the humanitarian organisations created by the winners — and the way others use donated funds. </p>
<p>For example, former US President Barack Obama, the 2009 laureate, donated his winnings to 10 different charities; the head of one of these charities <a href="http://www.mhpbooks.com/greg-mortenson-goes-on-today-to-apologize-for-three-cups-of-tea-scandal/">admitted in 2014</a> to mismanaging and personally profiting from the money.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-prizes-controversial-push-for-popularity-66118">The Nobel Prizes’ controversial push for popularity</a>
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<p>The awarding of the Peace Prize also sometimes creates tension between the winners and their colleagues. This is partly because of the Nobel Foundation rules, which state that a Nobel Prize can’t be given to more than three people in a given year. </p>
<p>So, while some winners become overnight celebrities, their former colleagues are sometimes sidelined. Perhaps most sensationally, the 1997 awarding of the prize to Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/20/world/in-fighting-land-mines-friendship-is-casualty.html">led to bitter in-fighting</a> within the organisation.</p>
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<img alt="Jody Williams talking with reporters in 1997." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425621/original/file-20211011-23-fbzolq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Jody Williams talking with reporters at her home in Vermont in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">TOBY TALBOT/AP</span></span>
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<h2>More dire threats from authoritarian regimes</h2>
<p>One of the biggest, immediate threats facing both Ressa and Muratov is potential harsh repression from the authorities in their home countries. </p>
<p>Over the years, many Peace Prize winners – and their supporters – have faced severe repercussions after winning the award. </p>
<p>For example, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo spent years in detention for “inciting subversion of state power” until his death in 2017. The Chinese government depicted him as a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/07/13/535965814/chinese-nobel-peace-laureate-and-human-rights-advocate-liu-xiaobo-dies">stooge of the west</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/14/china/liu-xiaobo-chinese-censorship/index.html">blocked information</a> about him online. His wife <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/10/liu-xia-nobel-laureates-widow-allowed-to-leave-china-for-europe">spent nearly eight years</a> in house arrest despite never having been charged with a crime.</p>
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<p>Other winners, such as Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Iranian political activist Shirin Ebadi, also had to weather political backlashes. For this reason, one commentator <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/07/30/dangerous-prize/">has pointed out</a> the Peace Prize sometimes brings little peace.</p>
<p>Tensions may already be appearing in Russia following Muratov’s win. Even though the Kremlin <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/8/nobel-peace-prize-kremlin-russia-journalism-muratov">congratulated</a> Muratov – calling him “talented” and “brave” – authorities <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-09/russia-labels-reporters-foreign-agents-after-nobel-award/100526590">have begun to label</a> other journalists and media organisations “foreign agents”. </p>
<p>Supporters of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny have also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/world/nobel-russia-navalny.html">expressed disappointment</a> over the choice of winner, as well as Muratov’s approach of trying to engage with Russia’s leaders. </p>
<p>Ressa, meanwhile, has faced a torrent of online trolling and threats throughout her career, which have <a href="https://qz.com/2071340/how-the-philippines-reacted-to-maria-resas-nobel-peace-prize-win/">continued with ferocity</a> after her win.</p>
<p>For all the glamour and worldwide attention it brings, Nobel Peace Prize celebrity has a darker side, which all winners have to handle. As Ressa <a href="https://qz.com/2071340/how-the-philippines-reacted-to-maria-resas-nobel-peace-prize-win/">has said</a>, there is only one way to deal with it:</p>
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<p>When we came under attack, there wasn’t really any other choice, the phrase we used is ‘hold the line’.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lukasz Swiatek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lives of Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov will be forever changed after winning the prize. But with a more visible presence comes increased scrutiny and threats from those in positions of power.Lukasz Swiatek, Lecturer, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695602021-10-08T14:53:57Z2021-10-08T14:53:57ZNobel peace prize: how Dmitry Muratov built Russia’s ‘bravest’ newspaper, Novaya Gazeta<p>In 1993, Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev used part of his Nobel peace prize money to help <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211008-muratov-and-novaya-gazeta-russia-s-independent-media-stalwarts">set up the newspaper</a> Novaya Gazeta, buying the publication its first computers.</p>
<p>Nearly 30 years later, the paper has another Nobel peace prize in its history. Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, was jointly awarded the prize with Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, “<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2021/summary/">for their efforts</a> to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”.</p>
<p>The prize is a surprising and welcome show of support to Russia’s independent press, which has been under <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-nation-one-voice-press-control-and-propaganda-in-putins-russia-25551">constant pressure</a> during the 21 years of Vladimir Putin’s rule.</p>
<p>Thanks to Gorbachev’s perestroika political reforms and liberation of the press during the 1980s, investigative journalists became national heroes in the late Soviet Union. They revealed the regime’s crimes of the past, tracing them in newly-opened archives, and uncovered corruption among bureaucrats who abused their power to enrich themselves. </p>
<p>It was in this context that Muratov’s career skyrocketed. In 1987, he left his hometown to join Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in Moscow. This newspaper of the young Communists took a critical stance towards the Soviet regime in its final years, and was considered a leading voice of perestroika. </p>
<p>Komsomolskaya Pravda was among the newspapers that stood against the 1991 military coup, led by a conservative bloc of the Communist government, to overthrow Gorbachev. The August coup marked the end of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in December that year, and led to a new era for the press.</p>
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<p>In 1992, Muratov left Komsomolskaya Pravda over a dispute about the paper’s future. Muratov was among those who defended the newspaper as an investigative media outlet, while his competitor Valery Sungorkin sought to turn it into a tabloid to make money. The tabloid view succeeded. </p>
<p>Muratov and a team of colleagues began publishing New Daily Newspaper (Novaya Ezhednevnaya Gazeta), reporting on politics, corruption and war crimes in Chechnya. In 1995, Muratov was appointed editor-in-chief and the newspaper received its current name: Novaya Gazeta (literally New Newspaper). </p>
<h2>Dark days</h2>
<p>In an interview for my forthcoming book, Muratov told me that the editorial team hardly managed to make ends meet in the 1990s. There was no money to pay salaries, everything that the cooperative members received outside of their newspaper duties was invested back into the paper.</p>
<p>In the 2000s, a lifeline of financial support came from Gorbachev and Aleksandr Lebedev, the Russian banker and entrepreneur who bought London’s Evening Standard newspaper in 2009. The two backed Muratov’s wishes to maintain Novaya Gazeta’s leadership as an investigative outlet. </p>
<p>They also became Muratov’s friends, sharing his happiness in times of success, and his grief over the paper’s many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/14/novaya-gazeta-journalists-murdered">losses.</a> Novaya Gazeta has often been called Russia’s <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/novaya-gazeta-journalism-murder-and-reporting-truth-russias-bravest-newspaper">“bravest” newspaper</a>, and has one of the highest rates of murdered journalists among Russian media. Between 2000 and 2021, six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists were killed on duty, notably including <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/anna-politkovskaya-anniversary/">Anna Politkovskaya</a> on 7 October 2006 – almost 15 years to the day before Muratov was awarded the Nobel.</p>
<p>In 2009, after a lawyer and journalist working for Novaya Gazeta were <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/europe_moscow-protesters-remember-2009-killings-lawyer-and-journalist/6182827.html">murdered by far-right activists</a>, Muratov created a security protocol to protect journalists who were running dangerous investigations. </p>
<p>It couldn’t have come too soon: as the Russian regime grew more authoritarian, it became more dangerous to report on corruption, human rights violations and murders of Putin’s critics. </p>
<p>Yet Novaya’s reporters revealed the <a href="https://imrussia.org/en/politics/2520-novaya-gazeta%E2%80%99s-investigation-how-boris-nemtsov-was-murdered">extent of the state involvement</a> into the murder of Boris Nemtsov in February 2015. Nemtsov, Putin’s fiercest critic at the time, was shot dead in front of the Kremlin and no high-profile person was found guilty in assisting the crime.</p>
<p>Elena Milashina, Novaya’s top reporter on Chechnya, has documented the murders of LGBT people and reported on the cold-blooded murders of Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s opponents. She has faced <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/press-freedom_despite-too-many-threats-count-russian-reporter-elena-milashina-wont-quit/6200363.html">physical attacks and death threats.</a>.</p>
<h2>A brighter future?</h2>
<p>Muratov is a one-of-a-kind character. He is never afraid to speak out and defend journalists and dissenting voices, knowing that he or his editorial team <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/03/15/russian-investigative-paper-novaya-gazeta-says-targeted-in-chemical-attack-a73246">may be attacked</a>. He is the leader of a network of media that helps Russian journalists in dangerous regions to continue their work under Muratov’s symbolic protection. </p>
<p>He has certainly made hundreds of powerful enemies who would be happy to get rid of him but, at the same time, he has made thousands of friends across all sectors of Russian society, including top politicians, law enforcement officers and the super rich. His friendships with power brokers help him navigate the murky waters of Russian politics without major losses to reputation. This has irritated hardcore members of the Russian opposition and some western observers of Russia, who think he has sold his soul to the Kremlin. </p>
<p>This portrait of Muratov does not fully capture the scope of his important role in Russian media. Muratov uses his influence and connections not to enrich himself, but to sustain the powerhouse last shelter of investigative journalism inside Russia.</p>
<p>The Nobel prize will make Muratov more influential domestically and will earn him more enemies among the elite, who may later claim that he betrayed Russia for foreign funding and awards. Symbolically, this prize will empower all Russian investigative journalists who fight for their lives and profession amid unprecedented attacks from the state.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilya Yablokov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Muratov’s Nobel will be a boon to Russian investigative journalism.Ilya Yablokov, Lecturer in Journalism and Digital Media, Department of Journalism Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695642021-10-08T14:51:21Z2021-10-08T14:51:21ZMaria Ressa: Nobel prize-winner risks life and liberty to hold Philippines government to account<p>The importance of journalists who take considerable risks to bring people the truth in countries where this involves going up against authoritarian governments has been recognised by the Nobel committee’s decision to <a href="https://theconversation.com/philippines-rodrigo-dutertes-dictatorship-sinks-to-new-depths-with-closure-of-main-broadcaster-138025">award the 2021 peace prize</a> to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia.</p>
<p>In announcing the award, the Nobel committee called the pair “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal”. They said Ressa had used her online news organisation, Rappler, to “expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines”.</p>
<p>Rappler, which grew out of a Facebook page launched in 2012 and has become one of the Philippines’ most credible independent news services, has been targeted by President Rodrigo Duterte since his election in 2016. His 2017 state of the union speech alleged that Rappler was in foreign ownership, which would be contrary to the constitution. He also said it peddled “fake news”. </p>
<p>Government investigations followed and, by 2018, Ressa and Rappler were inundated with charges of cybercrime, tax evasion and as much intimidation as the Duterte government could muster. </p>
<p>This harassment took place against a backdrop of presidentially sanctioned murder in the form of Duterte’s “war on drugs” (which the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rodrigo-duterte-why-the-iccs-investigation-will-not-guarantee-a-fairer-or-safer-philippines-163089">International Criminal Court is now investigating</a>) which led to the deaths of over 20,000 people, including journalists around the country. Ressa was not cowed by intimidation and threats. Time magazine named her one of its Person of the Year winners in 2018 alongside other journalists facing oppression around the world. </p>
<p>When she was arrested for the first time, in 2019 at the age of 56, the country’s most prominent journalist was made to spend a night behind bars, a low point for civil society in the Philippines. Ressa and her Rappler colleagues continue to work under the threat of imprisonment. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen if the award of the Nobel peace prize will shield Ressa and Rappler from further targeting, and whether the election, scheduled for May 2022, will bring any relief from government harassment and threats. </p>
<h2>Thorn in Duterte’s side</h2>
<p>Long before Duterte was elected, Ressa was an established figure in Filipino public life. She had been the face of CNN in the Philippines as its bureau chief from 1987-1995 and then as an investigative reporter for CNN, where she focused on terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 across southeast Asia. </p>
<p>In 2004, she joined major Philippines-based media company ABS-CBN and for six years helped grow it into the major news network in the country (its broadcast operations were <a href="https://theconversation.com/philippines-rodrigo-dutertes-dictatorship-sinks-to-new-depths-with-closure-of-main-broadcaster-138025">shut down by Duterte in 2020</a>). It is with great credit to Ressa that her influence is so strong across the news media landscape in the Philippines where younger journalists continue to follow her advice and example.</p>
<p>This is not the first time Maria Ressa has won a major international award. She received the <a href="https://www.ndi.org/our-stories/2017-democracy-dinner-explores-global-threat-disinformation">2017 Democracy Award</a>, the 2018 <a href="https://www.icfj.org/maria-ressa-accepts-2018-knight-international-journalism-award#:%7E:text=Maria%20Ressa%20Accepts%20the%202018,Award%20%7C%20International%20Center%20for%20Journalists">Knight International Journalism Award</a> and, also in 2018, the <a href="http://www.blog.wan-ifra.org/articles/2018/05/31/2018-golden-pen-of-freedom-awarded-to-maria-ressa-of-the-philippines">World Association of Newspapers’s Golden Pen of Freedom Award</a> and the <a href="https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/maria-ressa-wins-2018-gwen-ifill-press-freedom-award-in-new-york/">Committee to Protect Journalists’ Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award</a>. Her trials over recent years have regularly garnered public attention and condemnation from across the world from <a href="https://twitter.com/madeleine/status/1095787071862640648?lang=en">leading figures</a> and <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/dismay-over-philippine-journalist-maria-ressas-prison-sentence">organisations</a>. </p>
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<h2>Peace Prize premium?</h2>
<p>Despite this, the Duterte government has continued to stifle dissent and attack less prominent journalists in the more remote provinces of the Philippines who continue to investigate corruption and violence under the direct threat of violence and intimidation. Hopefully the Nobel prize will put pressure on presidential candidates in the 2022 election to speak on the issue of press freedom and make it a campaign issue. The award also means that foreign governments calibrating new relations with the next administration have a symbol to rally around. </p>
<p>In 2019, I was a delegate at the UK and Canadian governments’ <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/global-conference-for-media-freedom-london-2019">Global Conference for Media Freedom</a> in London. I had the opportunity to briefly meet Maria and her lawyer Amal Clooney. There were a lot of strong sentiments and good words expressed that day from government officials as they listened to stories like those from the Philippines. </p>
<p>The whole event rung hollow when, toward the end of the day, news broke of the murder of radio news anchor <a href="https://cpj.org/data/people/eduardo-dizon/">Eduardo Dizon</a>, a journalist with Brigada News FM in Kidapawan City in the southern Philippines. But by handing this award to brave journalists like Ressa and Muratov, the Nobel committee is proclaiming the value, not only of their work, but of all journalists who take risks to hold power to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How Maria Ressa grew a Facebook page into the Philippines’ most credible independent news services in the face of government intimidation.Tom Smith, Principal Lecturer in International Relations & Academic Director of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1120562019-02-21T19:06:29Z2019-02-21T19:06:29ZPress freedom under attack: why Filipino journalist Maria Ressa’s arrest should matter to all of us<p>In a scene right out of a thriller, agents from the Filipino National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided journalist and editor Maria Ressa’s Manila office at 5pm on Wednesday February 13, after most courts had closed. They took her from the Rappler newsroom where she is editor, to a police watch house and threw her in a cell. </p>
<p>Ressa’s lawyer bagged up enough cash to post bail and rushed to the only available judge who was presiding over the night court. The judge refused bail, forcing the journalist to spend the night in prison before another judge finally released her the following day. </p>
<p>Ressa’s crime? According to the NBI, she had been arrested on charges of “cyber-libel” – online defamation – for a story alleging a prominent businessman was involved in criminal activity.</p>
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<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Maria Ressa’s case is important not only because a government used a crime statute to intimidate and lock up a journalist for what should have been treated as a civil dispute, but because of what it says about the way governments are increasingly using the “rule of law” to silence the legitimate work of journalists. </p>
<p>“As a journalist, I know firsthand how the law is being weaponised against perceived critics,” Ressa <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/rapplers-maria-ressa-duterte-government-weaponizing-information-and-law/a-47546367">told CNN</a>.</p>
<p>“I’m not a critic,” she continued. “I’m a journalist and I’m doing my job, holding the government to account.”</p>
<p>Ressa is one of the world’s most decorated reporters. A former CNN correspondent, she set up the news website <a href="https://www.rappler.com/">Rappler.com</a> early in 2012 with a group of colleagues. Since then, it has won numerous awards and become one of the most respected news organisations in the Philippines, fearlessly covering the Duterte government and the consequences of its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/19/dutertes-philippines-drug-war-death-toll-rises-above-5000">war on drugs</a> that has claimed thousands of lives. </p>
<p>Last year, TIME Magazine named Ressa a <a href="http://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/">“Person of the Year” </a> – among several journalists including the recently murdered Jamal Khashoggi – for her courageous defence of press freedom. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-journalists-one-newspaper-time-magazines-person-of-the-year-recognises-the-global-assault-on-journalism-108669">Four journalists, one newspaper: Time Magazine's Person of the Year recognises the global assault on journalism</a>
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<p>Rappler <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/6061-cj-using-suvs-of-controversial-businessmen">published the disputed story</a> in May 2012, <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/194279-ressa-santos-cyber-libel-complaint-keng">four months</a> <em>before</em> the government passed the cyber-libel law. (Under the Philippines’ constitution, <a href="http://saklawph.com/retroactivity/">no law can be retroactive</a>.) The law also requires complaints to be filed within a year of publication. </p>
<p>The NBI said Rappler had updated the story in 2014 (it corrected a spelling error), and argued that because the story was still online, the website was guilty of “<a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/222691-doj-to-indict-rappler-cyber-libel-despite-nbi-flip-flop">continuous publication</a>”. </p>
<p>The cyber-libel charge is the latest in a long string of legal attacks Rappler is fighting off. Ressa told CNN she is involved in no less than seven separate cases, including charges of violating laws that prohibit foreign ownership of media companies and tax evasion. </p>
<p>She vehemently denies all the allegations, and to date there has been no evidence to support them. Instead, the legal assault has widely been condemned as a blatant attack on press freedom.</p>
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<p>After the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – responsible for registering companies in the Philippines – warned it was <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/193687-rappler-registration-revoked">revoking Rappler’s license</a> to operate because of breaches of the ownership laws, Philippines Senator Risa Hontiveros <a href="https://twitter.com/risahontiveros/status/952802729331539968?lang=en">tweeted</a> this was “a move straight out of the dictator’s playbook. I urge the public and all media practitioners to defend press freedom and the right to speak truth to power.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/639759/sec-ruling-on-rappler-tantamount-to-killing-news-site-focap/story/">Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines</a> expressed “deep concern” over the SEC decision, saying it was “tantamount to killing the online news site”. And, the <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/01/16/media-groups-on-SEC-closure-order-rappler.html">Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines </a> said the decision </p>
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<p>will be remembered in Philippine press history infamy. It is the day that a government built on democratic principles struck a blow on one of the pillars of Asia’s most vibrant democracy.</p>
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<p>The SEC has allowed Rappler to continue operating while the case is pending, but the threat of closure remains.</p>
<p>In its defence, the country’s justice department <a href="http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1061911">denied</a> it was an attack on press freedom, arguing free speech did not give licence to engage in libel. That is true of course, but the way the authorities in the Philippines have been twisting the law to suit a blatantly political purpose should be troubling to all of us.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-ressa-journalists-need-protection-in-dutertes-philippines-but-we-must-also-heed-the-stories-they-tell-111936">Maria Ressa: journalists need protection in Duterte’s Philippines, but we must also heed the stories they tell</a>
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<h2>How governments silence journalists</h2>
<p>The Duterte administration isn’t the first to do this. It happened to my two colleagues and I in Egypt, where we were charged and convicted for terrorism offences after we spoke to the Muslim Brotherhood - the group who had six months earlier been ousted from power as the first legitimately elected government in Egypt’s history.</p>
<p>As responsible journalists, we had a duty to speak to all parties involved in the political crisis, and for doing our jobs, we were sentenced to seven years for “promoting terrorist ideology”. </p>
<p>Turkey is the world’s most prolific jailer of journalists, with <a href="https://cpj.org/data/imprisoned/2018/?status=Imprisoned&start_year=2018&end_year=2018&group_by=location">68 in prison</a>. Yet all are there on terrorism charges.</p>
<p>And the problem is not limited to authoritarian regimes. As much as former US President Barack Obama spoke out in our defence while we were imprisoned in Cairo, his administration used the <a href="https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/10/jake-tapper/cnns-tapper-obama-has-used-espionage-act-more-all-/">Espionage Act</a> (passed in 1917 to deal with foreign spies) more than all his predecessors combined. </p>
<p>The act was applied against government workers leaking information to the press. If the leaks exposed genuinely sensitive information, this would be understandable, but in almost every case it was to go after journalists or their sources revealing politically embarrassing stories.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/united-states-will-stay-on-the-greste-case-ambassador-says-28449">United States will stay on the Greste case, Ambassador says</a>
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<p>In Australia, a slew of laws have come in that, in their own way, choke off journalists’ ability to hold the government, courts and individuals to account. Whether it is the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-29/metadata-laws-need-reform:-expert/8482104">data retention law</a> that makes it almost impossible to protect sources, or the chronic <a href="https://pressfreedom.org.au/suppression-orders-5af921a8ae60">overuse of suppression orders</a> that restrict journalists’ capacity to report on court cases, or <a href="https://pressfreedom.org.au/the-year-in-australian-media-law-9da4265c9269">defamation laws</a> weighted heavily in against the media, all make the our societies more opaque without providing protection for legitimate journalistic inquiry. </p>
<p>As Maria Ressa said <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/rapplers-maria-ressa-duterte-government-weaponizing-information-and-law/a-47546367">after she was released on bail</a>:</p>
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<p>Press freedom is not just about journalists. This is certainly not just about me or Rappler. Press freedom is the foundation of every Filipino’s right to the truth. We will keep fighting. We will hold the line. This has become more important than ever.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Greste is UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communications at the University of Queensland. He is also a founding member and spokesman for the Alliance for Journalists Freedom.</span></em></p>Maria Ressa’s case is important because of what it says about the way governments are increasingly using the “rule of law” to silence the legitimate work of journalists.Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1119362019-02-19T10:55:16Z2019-02-19T10:55:16ZMaria Ressa: journalists need protection in Duterte’s Philippines, but we must also heed the stories they tell<p>There has rightly been plenty of <a href="https://cpj.org/2019/02/cpj-condemns-arrest-of-rapplers-maria-ressa-on-cyb.php">condemnation</a> for the arrest of journalist Maria Ressa in the Philippines on February 13. Her <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47225217">news organisation, Rappler</a> – which has been critical of the government – has been targeted and maligned for at least a year by an authoritarian but sensitive regime up to its neck in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/28/philippines-duterte-confesses-drug-war-slaughter">human rights violations</a>.</p>
<p>While Ressa’s arrest (and overnight detention) and the harassment of Rappler staff are deplorable, they are also sadly predictable. The time to worry about media suppression was a year ago, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/philippines-dictator-duterte-turns-on-the-media-that-helped-elect-him-90149">I warned on this platform</a>. The Philippines’ steady descent into despotism under president Rodrigo Duterte means the world’s focus needs to be on those <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/28/duterte-confesses-my-only-sin-is-the-extrajudicial-killings">being killed</a> – and who don’t garner the same amount of column inches of solidarity.</p>
<p>Understandably, nothing rallies the press like an attack on one of their own, especially a feted international star such as Ressa. Vociferous <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/223452-un-special-rapporteur-david-kaye-statement-maria-ressa-arrest-february-2019">solidarity</a> and protection is of course needed – especially when even such high-profile figures are attacked. But we need to take stock of what happens during these cycles of outrage – and question just how productive they are. </p>
<p>Duterte’s supporters wasted no time in condemning the criticisms. Duterte is winning a culture war against anything even remotely cast as “Western liberalism” – and the media’s attempts to defend Ressa were quickly drowned out by <a href="https://politics.com.ph/level-up-dds-trolls-use-ptv-4-facebook-account-to-praise-duterte/">hardline pro-Duterte trolls</a>. The media’s protests risk being confined to echo chambers populated by those who don’t need any convincing that journalists require protection. </p>
<h2>Media influence</h2>
<p>Research shows that newspaper opinion columns and editorials still have “a lasting effect on people’s views regardless of their <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2018/04/24/study-shows-newspaper-op-eds-change-minds">political affiliation or their initial stance on an issue</a>”. Which is, of course, why both authoritarian and liberal politicians alike combat their influence in their own way. But in the Philippines in 2019, this cycle needs to be broken so that the media can find some political power in the country as the fourth estate.</p>
<p>Solidarity alone is not enough to reform as formidable and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/28/duterte-confesses-my-only-sin-is-the-extrajudicial-killings">murderous a regime</a> as Duterte’s. Solidarity is a zero-sum game in 21st-century life. Our capacity for clicktivism is now more global and inclusive, but diluted exactly because of the breadth and depth of the countless issues appearing in our news feeds. </p>
<p>Journalists are under fire globally – as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/03/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-nofilter-president-no-joke-journalists-women">I have written about previously</a>. But it is their stories that are most important. As <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/asia/maria-ressa-rappler-posts-bail-intl/index.html">Ressa herself said</a>:</p>
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<p>Press freedom is not just about journalists, right? It’s not just about us, it’s not just about me, it’s not just about Rappler. Press freedom is … the foundation of every single right of every single Filipino to the truth, so that we can hold the powerful to account.</p>
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<h2>Stories behind the story</h2>
<p>On January 30, peace advocate Randy Malayao was <a href="http://www.chrp.org.uk/2019/randy-malayao-chrp-ps/?fbclid=IwAR0zpQzdNYDMpN5mJz5gFJUSdQtx9OE7eSEpOmXR7qM1zh8mlV6V8sUwEWI">assassinated</a> on a public bus. In November 2018, Benjamin Ramos, a human rights lawyer who was helping a client free of charge, was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/philippines-human-rights-lawyer-shot-dead-181130130409855.html">killed</a> by a motorcycle assassin, one of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/philippines-human-rights-lawyer-shot-dead-negros-island-181107072451909.html">dozens</a> in his profession killed since Duterte was elected. <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/214987-list-massacres-incidents-of-violence-against-farmers-philippines">Farmers</a> and <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/16/17/lake-sebu-lumad-massacre-followed-visit-of-barangay-captain">indigenous</a> rights workers are also being killed without accountability. The scale of this political violence is difficult to comprehend and yet you will struggle to read about any of it outside of the Philippines. Concentrated international pressure is desperately needed. </p>
<p>The UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt made his first meaningful comment regarding the Philippines to say he was “<a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/223560-uk-statement-maria-ressa-arrest-february-2019?fbclid=IwAR20OkvZ6ZI8YmGiunjLsEdpb0foRY8rwbxMmBqoKYvtbgbJNOoHMn5Cn3E">deeply concerned</a>” about Ressa’s detention in a tweet referencing an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/13/the-guardian-view-on-media-freedom-it-must-be-defended">editorial</a> in The Guardian condemning her treatment. But without further action, this feels like too little, too late. </p>
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<p>“<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/asia/maria-ressa-rappler-posts-bail-intl/index.html">Weaponising the law</a>”, as Ressa claims, is not uncommon in democracies where the primary tool of the state is the rule of law. More acutely, Duterte is brazenly and somewhat successfully politicising the rule of law. Rappler’s supporters – and those who side with the country’s few brave opposition figures – are trapped in a parallel discourse from Duterte’s supporters and the two sides talk past one another rather than to one another. This leaves many ordinary Filipinos lost in a political no man’s land, isolated from and ignored by both camps.</p>
<p>Add to this the <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/215702-militarization-government-correct-duterte">militarisation</a> of Filipino society – at first through the murderous “war on drugs” and continued through the application of martial law in the south of the country – and it is a toxic mix. Violence is this regime’s default language, making the world numb with its drip feed of daily death and destruction. By doing away with his critics and platforms of dissent, Duterte is shaping the nation in his own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/09/kill-list-phillipines-duterte-mass-murder-china-united-states-rivalry-war-on-drugs">horrific image</a>. </p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>Duterte appreciates Rappler’s power more than most. It brought Filipino politics “online” and modernised political coverage, amplifying it through social media. Duterte supporters ran away with this premise towards the end of the election and have never looked back. Duterte has no apprehension in making Ressa into an emblem for the “liberal elite” – his brand of politics needs antagonists. Ressa, a powerful and confident woman, internationally minded, represents all his enemies – notably the vice president, Leni Robredo, who has <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/223438-robredo-otso-diretso-statements-arrest-maria-ressa-february-2019">denounced Ressa’s arrest</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/07/rodrigo-duterte-strong-filipinas-philippines-cory-aquino-gloria-arroyo">senator Leila de Lima</a>, who has been jail for almost two years on trumped-up charges.</p>
<p>Duterte has politicised every element of Filipino life and is now cashing in, laying the ground for an even more authoritarian future. One which may well have his daughter Sara – or one of his various acolytes – as <a href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/02/17/1894372/sara-duterte-could-be-next-president-after-rody">the next president</a>. We must seek better protection for journalists around the world – that should go without saying. But we must also listen to and, crucially, act on the stories that journalists such as Ressa are telling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The arrest of a high-profile journalist in the Philippines has been rightly condemned. But the abuses she has been reporting continue daily.Tom Smith, Principal Lecturer in International Relations, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1086692018-12-12T03:03:46Z2018-12-12T03:03:46ZFour journalists, one newspaper: Time Magazine’s Person of the Year recognises the global assault on journalism<p>Time Magazine has just announced its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-12/time-magazine-person-of-the-year/10608814">“Person of the Year”</a> for 2018, and for once, it isn’t one person. This time it is four people and a newspaper.</p>
<p>Collectively calling them “The Guardians”, Time has awarded the accolade to the murdered Saudi journalist <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399">Jamal Khashoggi</a>, Filipino journalist <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/218725-maria-ressa-other-journalists-named-time-person-of-the-year-2018">Maria Ressa</a> who edits the Rappler news website, two young Reuters journalists <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-journalists-trial-specialrepo/special-report-how-myanmar-punished-two-reporters-for-uncovering-an-atrocity-idUSKCN1LJ167">Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo</a> currently serving seven-year sentences for exposing a massacre in Myanmar, and the staff of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-29/maryland-newspaper-shooting-at-least-five-people-dead/9922686">The Capital Gazette</a> newspaper in the American town of Annapolis, Maryland, who continued publishing after five of their colleagues were gunned down in an attack in June.</p>
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<p>Time’s Person of the Year cover is reserved for those who the magazine judges have had “the greatest impact on the news”, and not always for the better (it famously nominated Adolf Hitler in 1938). Its decision to name a collection of journalists is a marker not just of the impact those individuals have made, but a nod to the wider global crisis of confidence in journalism and “the truth”. The nominees are there partly for what they have done, but also for what they have come to represent. </p>
<p>Khashoggi is undoubtedly the best known of the group. The grim details of his assassination, in which he was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his marriage before he was strangled and dismembered with a bone saw, are as compelling as any airport novel. But they also exposed the cynicism of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has tried to present himself as Saudi Arabia’s Western-friendly liberal saviour while ruthlessly and illiberally cracking down on dissenters.</p>
<p>As Khashoggi himself once asked in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/06/read-jamal-khashoggis-columns-for-the-washington-post/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c0b95d90ae16">a Washington Post column</a>:</p>
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<p>Must we choose between movie theatres and our rights as citizens to speak out, whether in support of or critical of our government’s actions?</p>
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<p>Maria Ressa is less well-known but no less courageous. A former CNN correspondent, she co-founded Rappler seven years ago, building it into one of the most trusted independent sources of news in The Philippines.</p>
<p>Rappler has fearlessly covered President Duterte’s authoritarian edicts, including his war on drugs that has taken an estimated 12,000 lives. In the process, she has weathered a storm of assaults from Duterte himself and his army of online trolls. She now faces up to 10 years in prison on<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/03/philippines-journalist-maria-ressa-turn-herself-in-police-warrant-rappler"> tax evasion charges</a> that seem contrived not to punish financial crimes but silence a vital critical voice.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-in-the-name-of-security-secrecy-surveillance-and-journalism-105486">Book: In the name of security - secrecy, surveillance and journalism</a>
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<p>Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo produced one of the most <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/">impressive pieces of journalism of 2017</a>, investigating the murder of ten Rohingya Muslim men with forensic attention to detail. They unearthed a series of photographs of the victims and their killers, and were able to piece together a detailed narrative so compelling that the authorities were forced to imprison the soldiers responsible for 10 years. For their work, the Reuters journalists were also arrested for violating the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years. (A police officer testified in court that they framed the journalists.)</p>
<p>And The Capital Gazette? A few hours after a gunman burst into the newspaper’s offices and murdered five staffers, one of its reporters, Chase Cook, tweeted: “I can tell you this. We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow”. The paper did exactly that. </p>
<p>It was not producing the kind of work that might attract a murderous response. It is a local rag that covers council elections and school sports, not autocrats and genocide. And yet the press is now so demonised that a reader felt justified in shooting it up for its reporting of his own court case. </p>
<p>From the local to the global, these examples expose the way one of the most fundamental pillars of a free, liberal society - journalism itself - is under assault. </p>
<p>The digital revolution is partly to blame. It has created a firehose of information that has enabled us to find “news” that confirms whatever we want to believe. In the process, it has eroded trust in the media and enabled anyone who squirms under its spotlight to dismiss it as “fake”. In the process, our capacity to hold informed, rational public debate has been dangerously undermined.</p>
<p>Make no mistake. This is a global crisis that strikes at the foundations of democracy, which is why Time’s decision is so timely and important.</p>
<p>Journalists are not without fault. News is a messy, imperfect human construct, and in the rush to create stories that stand out from the digital noise, standards have slipped. But the verbal and physical assaults on news agencies and their staff fail to acknowledge the professionalism that so many bring to their craft. The difference between fake news and the real thing is that good journalists acknowledge errors and correct them fast.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-investigative-journalists-are-using-social-media-to-uncover-the-truth-66393">How investigative journalists are using social media to uncover the truth</a>
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<p>The Time cover also demands a response. If we do nothing, we will end up heading further down a path that nobody but the authoritarians are happy with. Even in Australia, where national security laws have dramatically limited the ability of journalists to keep watch over government, the problems are acute and deteriorating. That is why a group of colleagues and I have set up the <a href="https://www.journalistsfreedom.com/">Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom</a> to advocate for media freedom in the broadest sense - the ability to work free of unnecessarily restrictive laws, in a financial environment that supports independent quality news. </p>
<p>The questions are huge. How do we balance the democratic need for transparency and accountability, with the demands of national security? How do we pay for journalism that is costly and necessary but not always commercially viable? How do we restore trust in an institution that underpins the way our society and our government works?</p>
<p>The AJF has partnered with the University of Queensland, where I am UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication, to work on research that tackles some of these most pressing problems. </p>
<p>If we do nothing, we can expect to see a lot more cases like Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, The Capital Gazette or Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. I suspect that is a world few of us would relish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof. Peter Greste is UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communications at the University of Queensland. He is also a founding member and spokesman for the Alliance for Journalists Freedom. </span></em></p>The four people and a newspaper who are Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” have been given the acknowledgment not just for what they have done, but for what they have come to represent.Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/802712017-06-29T05:57:18Z2017-06-29T05:57:18ZFighting back against prolific online harassment in the Philippines<p><em>In the past decade, <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/safety-of-journalists/">more than 800 journalists have been killed</a> in the course of their work according to UNESCO, while hundreds more have been assaulted, imprisoned or harassed.</em></p>
<p><em>The nature of the threat is changing as the virtual world spills into the physical. The experiences of Filipino journalist Maria Ressa show how reporters now face targeted online harassment campaigns designed to discredit and silence them.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.twitter.com/mariaressa">Maria Ressa</a> is a former CNN war correspondent but none of her experiences in the field prepared her for the destructive campaign of gendered online harassment that’s been directed at her since the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. </p>
<p>“I’ve been called ugly, a dog, a snake, threatened with rape and murder,” she says. How many times has she received online death threats? She’s lost count. “Gosh, there have been so many!” </p>
<p>A journalist with more than 30 years experience, Ressa is the founding CEO and executive editor of the social media-powered news organisation <a href="http://www.rappler.com/">Rappler</a>, based in the Philippines.</p>
<p>In addition to being threatened with rape and murder, she’s been the subject of hashtag campaigns like #ArrestMariaRessa and #BringHerToTheSenate, designed to whip online mobs into attack mode, discredit both Ressa and Rappler, and chill their reporting.</p>
<p>Every journalist in the country reporting independently on the Duterte presidency is subjected to rampant and highly coordinated online abuse, she says. Especially if they’re female. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176166/original/file-20170629-31318-jrt2po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Maria Ressa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin San Diego, Rappler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>“It began a spiral of silence. Anyone who was critical or asked questions about extrajudicial killings was attacked, brutally attacked. The women got it worst,” she says. “And we’ve realised that the system is set up to silence dissent - designed to make journalists docile. We’re not supposed to be asking hard questions, and we’re certainly not supposed to be critical.”</p>
<p>This onslaught represents a real threat to the psychological, digital, and even physical safety of journalists, she adds. But she refuses to be cowed by online armies of “super trolls”, whom she believes are part of a campaign to destabilise democracy in the Philippines. </p>
<p>She admits that the constant attacks do make her think twice about doing stories that will be lightning rods for attacks. “But then I go and do the story even harder! I just refuse to let intimidation win.” </p>
<h2>Investigative journalism as a fightback weapon</h2>
<p>Her response to the threats includes investigative reporting on the intertwined problems of online harassment, disinformation and misinformation. She believes in “throwing sunlight” on the abusers. </p>
<p>But after Rappler published a feature series mapping the corrosive impacts of organised political “trolling” on the Philippines in October 2016, the onslaught of abuse and threats of violence escalated dramatically. </p>
<p>The series deployed “big data” analysis techniques to establish that a “sock puppet network” of 26 fake Facebook accounts was influencing nearly three million other Philippines-based accounts. Behind the “sock puppets” were three “super trolls”, as Ressa describes them. </p>
<p>Their aim was to seed misinformation and foment targeted attacks. “They would plant messages within groups, inflaming the groups who would then become a mob to attack the target,” she says.</p>
<p>In the days following publication of the Rappler series titled <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/148007-propaganda-war-weaponizing-internet">Propaganda War: Weaponising the Internet</a>, she received on average 90 hate messages an hour. Among these was what she describes as the first “credible death threat” against her. </p>
<p>The messages continued for months. “It happened so fast and at such frequency, I didn’t realise how unnatural it was”, she says. The effect was to mute the seriousness of the threats in her mind initially. “I really struggled with what’s real, what’s not. How do I respond, should I respond?” These are familiar questions for journalists and editors struggling to combat the impacts of online harassment. </p>
<p>But speaking up and speaking out brings protection through awareness, Ressa believes.</p>
<h2>Asking loyal audiences to help</h2>
<p>In early 2017, Ressa received another threat that stunned her. It was the kind of threat that women journalists are increasingly familiar with internationally: a call for her to be gang-raped and murdered. A young man wrote on Rappler’s Facebook page:</p>
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<p>I want Maria Ressa to be raped repeatedly to death, I would be so happy if that happens when martial law is declared, it would bring joy to my heart.</p>
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<p>Ressa responded like a digital journalist who understands the power of audiences. She asked her online communities to assist in identifying the threat-maker, who was using a Facebook account in a fake name. They came through. With her supporters’ help, Ressa was able to identify the man as a 22-year-old university student. When his university learned of his activities, he was forced to call Ressa and apologise. </p>
<p>Then, in the middle of an online storm triggered by a deliberately misleading report on a fake news site that misquoted Ressa, active and former members of the Philippines military piled on with abuse and threats. </p>
<p>Again, she activated her own online communities in response, and one “netizen” wrote an open letter to the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, General Eduardo Ano, asking him to intervene. </p>
<p>This activation of her networks worked. General Ano was upset by the incident, ordered an investigation and issued an official apology: “We publicly apologise to Miss Maria Ressa for the emotional pain, anxiety, and humiliation those irresponsible comments and unkind remarks might have caused her,” he wrote.</p>
<h2>Tightening security, online and off</h2>
<p>As Ressa began to realise, online threats to harm a journalist, or incitement of others to harm a journalist, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/swedish-broadcaster-alexandra-pascalidou-describes-online-threats-of-sexual-torture-and-graphic-abuse-20161124-gswuwv.html">must be taken seriously</a>. They can’t just be dealt with by blocking, muting, reporting, deleting and ignoring because, “You don’t know when it will jump out from the virtual world and sneak into the physical world.”</p>
<p>In response, Ressa decided to upgrade security in Rappler’s newsrooms and provide protection for the journalists facing the worst of the online attacks, adding that:</p>
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<p>It’s crossed the line where I do worry about safety. When you have people getting killed every night in the drug war and you have these online threats, you have no choice as a responsible corporation but to increase security for the people who work for you.</p>
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<p>In parallel, she strengthened digital safety defences. But while providing psychological support, she hasn’t removed her journalists from reporting duty, nor has she sent them out of the country. </p>
<p>And she’s keeping her legal options open. The sheer number of attacks means that it’s not possible to follow through on each one, Ressa says. But Rappler is recording every online threat and storing the data for possible future legal action. </p>
<p>“We’ve put in place protocols for how we deal with online threats”, she says. “We’re looking at potential ways to hold the offenders accountable. This impunity that exists shouldn’t be this way. We need solutions.”</p>
<h2>Calling the platforms to account</h2>
<p>Ressa’s public Facebook page is the target of about 2,000 “ugly” comments every day, she explains.</p>
<p>“The propaganda machine uses it to incite anger and then we have to deal with real people who believe this stuff. So that takes a lot of time”, she says. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole.” </p>
<p>She rejects the idea that the onus is on journalists to police the platforms by constantly reporting problems: “Block, mute, report … when you get so many of these it just takes up so much time. There’s not enough time in the day. We also have jobs to do.”</p>
<p>While she recognises the enormity of the challenge confronting Facebook, Ressa is adamant that the only way forward is for the social media giant to take responsibility for the problem and accept its role as a news publisher. </p>
<p>So she has begun publicly advocating for Facebook to step up. She’s also gone directly to the company with data demonstrating the size of the problem. </p>
<p>In the immediate short term, “the only group that has the power to restore some sense of order and civility is Facebook… To not do anything is an abdication of responsibility.”</p>
<h2>Emotional and psychological impacts</h2>
<p>Women journalists are often told to “toughen up” or “grow a thicker skin”, and that’s a common response to those who experience gendered online harassment. But the cumulative effect of constant derision - frequently received via the intimate device of a mobile phone - must be recognised, Ressa says, not just because the damage includes <a href="http://www.osce.org/fom/220411?download=true">well-documented impacts</a> on emotional and psychological well-being, but also censorship and erosion of trust:</p>
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<p>They attack your physicality, your sexuality. When you are denigrated, and stripped of dignity in this way, how can you maintain your credibility? All of these things work together for a single purpose and that’s to prevent journalists from doing their jobs.</p>
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<p>She’s been shocked at the level of the attacks and offered counselling and support to affected Rappler journalists, along with the social media team on the frontline of the battle, because: “I don’t want our people going home with this.” </p>
<p>Ressa also seeks to support others who are suffering online abuse but may not be as empowered as Rappler staff.</p>
<p>“We come together to help each other through it. We know what’s going on - it’s being done to intimidate us. We galvanise each other. And I think we’ll get through it,” she says. “I’m an optimist and I think we’re being forged by fire and we’ll emerge stronger.”</p>
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<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002504/250430E.pdf">An Attack On One Is An Attack On All: Successful initiatives to protect journalists and combat impunity</a>, published by UNESCO and launched at a UN conference in Geneva today.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Posetti has previously received funding from the Australian Government for journalism education initiatives. She was also contracted to produce a global study for UNESCO titled Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age (2017: UNESCO, Paris). She is also a member of the MEAA.</span></em></p>Filipino journalist Maria Ressa has faced online harassment campaigns designed to discredit and silence her.Julie Posetti, Journalism Research Fellow, University of Wollongong/Digital Editorial Capability Lead, Fairfax Media, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.