Maria Ressa And Dmitry Muratov On Do-Or-Die Battle For Media Freedom

Nobel laureates Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov are emblematic of the dire challenges faced by the media globally

-  Philip Mathew

Anya’s paper. That is the Novaya Gazeta’s street name. Brands would kill to develop that kind of personal bonding with consumers or readers. And someone did kill investigative journalist Anna ‘Anya’ Politkovskaya. Shot her down in her Moscow apartment exactly 15 years ago—in October 2006. She was never the editor of the Gazeta, but readers recognised that she had died for them, for their right to know the truth. And with the Gazeta’s editor, Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov, being named co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace 2021, this recognition has gone global. Anya did not die for Russians alone. She died for us.

Having been closely associated with the International Press Institute (IPI) for several decades, THE WEEK has a much closer bond with Muratov’s co-recipient: Maria Ressa, editor of the Philippine news website, Rappler. She is a member of the IPI executive board and was the recipient of the IPI-IMS Free Media Pioneer Award 2018. The ipi.media website has a long-running campaign page to support Ressa. She has been hounded so hard by the Philippines government that her counsel, Amal Clooney, said that Rappler had become a cautionary tale for journalists there. “Be silent, or you’re next.” She is facing at least “eight active criminal and administrative cases, which include tax cases, alleged violations of foreign ownership rules, and libel cases….”