Viewed from a country where independent journalism is on the frontline of the battle for democratic transformation and openness, this year’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize to two champions of freedom of expression is welcome and encouraging.
The journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dimitry Muratov of Russia have been honored as “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal.”
Ressa, a co-founder of the news site Rappler, was commended for her work to “expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country.”
Muratov, the co-founder and editor of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has also been prominent in exposing official abuse and corruption. Muratov dedicated his prize to journalists and contributors to Novaya Gazeta who have been murdered because of their uncompromising work.
Since 2000, six of them have been killed, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the most prominent among them. Politkovskaya was a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wars in Chechnya. She was shot dead 15 years ago this month in the entrance hall of her apartment block in central Moscow.
She was 48 years old.
Her aide, Anatoly Dotsenko, who had previously been the Moscow correspondent for Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, died unexpectedly before her in suspicious circumstances.
In Ukraine itself, journalists have long been in the forefront of the struggle for human and national rights and have also paid for this with their lives.
Leading figures in the modern Ukrainian national resurgence from the 1960s to the achievement of independence in 1991 were journalists.
During the last three decades, numerous journalists have sought to ensure that the independence Ukraine attained was grounded in a genuinely democratic state.
The most notable martyr for this cause was Georgiy Gongadze. The co-founder of the internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda, in 2000 he was the victim of a brutal political murder whose author has still not been exposed.
The case of the outspoken Belarusian Pavel Sheremet, who became active in Ukraine journalism and was blown up in his car in central Kyiv in 2016, also remains unsolved.
Sadly, journalism in Ukraine remains a dangerous profession. Violence against journalists is commonplace. Reporters decry the lack of protection and the legal system’s failings.
But by no means all journalists in Ukraine deserve to be called by this name and there is no shortage of those who give the profession a bad name.
In a country where journalists are all too often transformed into propagandists for their paymasters and standards are neglected, it takes real guts and commitment to principles to do the job properly.
Fortunately, as the intrepid team from Radio Liberty’s Schemes program showed earlier this month, with public support, journalists can successfully become Davids confronting Goliaths in the battle for truth.
As a result of the crude heavy-handed response to their anti-graft investigation, the chair of the state-owned Ukreximbank was placed under house arrest and then resigned.
The Nobel committee’s decision was a timely reminder that, in its words: “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war, propaganda.”
