Each year on the 10th of December, also known as the Nobel Day, the four Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine (or physiology) and literature, as well as the economic sciences prize awarded by Sveriges Riksbank in memory of Alfred Nobel, are presented in Stockholm, Sweden. However, there is a fifth Nobel Prize that is separated from the others, and presented by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway – we are of course talking about the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2021, the prize was awarded to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov ‘for their courageous fight for freedom of expression’ in their native countries. 

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) made several important contributions to science throughout his lifetime, most famous is his invention of Dynamite, which he patented (meaning he gained legal rights over the invention) in 1867. In Nobel’s will, which he signed in a Swedish-Norwegian club in Paris in 1895, it was stated that most of his fortune as well as future interest earned, should be used to establish a prize which is to be awarded annually to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind’ in the preceding year. However, as his family initially opposed the establishment of the Nobel Prize, it took five years before the first Nobel Prizes finally could be awarded.

/ If you want an extended read on Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Day, you can click here to read Libertas’ article from 2020.

Nobel never specified why exactly he wanted the Peace Prize to be awarded by a Norwegian committee, though many guesses have been made throughout the years. One likely inference is that Nobel could have wanted to distribute the prize committees across the Swedish-Norwegian union and considered Norway the more peace oriented of the two nations, given its lack of a foreign policy or military power of its own at the time. Other speculations include the fact that Nobel highly admired the Norwegian patriot and author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who also happened to be a well-known peace activist in the 1880s. Whatever the reason behind Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize has since the first prize in 1901 been awarded by a committee of five members, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.

As written in Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is to be awarded to the person ‘who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congress’. The prize has since 1901 been awarded 101 times to 132 laurates, including both persons and organisations. The prize committee has throughout the years recognised different kinds of peace work, with the main areas post WWII being democracy and human rights, peace negotiations, arms control and disarmament, and any work aimed towards ‘creating a better organised and more peaceful world’. In recent years, the committee has also been considering the efforts to limit harm on the climate as relevant to the prize. 

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In 2021 the Nobel Peace Prize had two laurates; Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov. The official announcement states that ‘Ms Ressa and Mr Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. At the same time, 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.’ Furthermore, the committee stated that with awarding the prize to these two journalists, they intended to underscore the importance of protecting and defending freedom of speech as a fundamental human right.

Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa has for the past decade been using investigative journalism (a strand of journalism defined by UNESCO as exposing concealed matters to the public) to expose the abuse of power and use of violence by the government in her native country, the Philippines. In 2011, Ressa co-founded Rappler, an investigative journalism company which aims to ‘speak truth to power and build communities of action for a better world’, as stated on their website. Throughout her work with Rappler, and now as CEO of the company, Ressa has faced constant political harassment as well as multiple arrests for calling out president Duterte and his government for their corruption and violent propagandas, particularly their brutal anti-drugs campaign, which has taken the life of tens of thousands, according to the international criminal court. Her work has also played an important role in exposing the dark side of social media and how leaders expose it to gain power. 

Throughout her career, Ressa has received multiple international awards for her courage and, as stated by the Nobel Committee, ‘efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.’ However, her work has come with a steep price, being constantly targeted through both social media campaigns and the government themselves. Ressa is currently out on bail, as she is appealing a six-year prison sentence for libel conviction.

Dimitry Mutarov

Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov is a Russian journalist and activist and has been a defender for the freedom of speech for decades. As co-founder and editor in chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent and non-censored news sources in Russia, Mutarov and his colleagues have had to endure numerous attacks by the government. Since its start-up in 1993, the newspaper, with its critical attitude to those in power, has been investigating corruption both inside and outside of Russia. Other significant parts of their work includes investigating the long wars in Chechnya, and the persecution of LGBTQ people in the region, as well as covering the leak of the Panama Papers in 2016. Their work has led to six of its journalists being killed. After Putin came to power in 1999, the struggles of running independent media outlets in Russia intensified, and Novaya Gazeta and its staff have been, and are still, targeted repeatedly. Even this year, their headquarters in Moskov received what has been called a ‘chemical attack’.

Mutarov has throughout his career consistently defended the rights of journalists to speak their truth, and him now being recognised by winning the Peace Prize has given Novaya Gazeta’s staff, and other journalists, hope that they will be shielded from future attacks.