Nobel Peace Prize awarded to journalists Ressa and Muratov

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, KIKO ROSARIO and VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia have won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee said they were honored for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression” but also were “representatives of all journalists” who stand for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.” Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a news website the committee said focused critical attention on President Rodrigo Duterte regime’s “controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign.” Muratov was a founder of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993, which was described as “an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media.”