Rappler Founder Maria Ressa Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Rappler founder and CEO Maria is the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee honored Ressa for her "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." She is the first-ever Filipino to be honored with a Nobel Prize.
Ressa shares the award with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who leads Russia's critical newspaper Nuvaya Gazeta, which reports on human rights violations and government corruption under Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Similarly, in the Philippines, Ressa and her team at Rappler have reported extensively on the Duterte administration's war on drugs and the spread of misinformation in the country.
Ressa was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Prior to founding Rappler in 2012, Ressa worked for CNN, where she reported on terrorist networks in Southeast Asia. Famous Nobel Peace Prize laureates include Barack Obama, Malala Yousafzai, and Nelson Mandela.
The Nobel Peace Prize comes with a gold medal and prize money worth 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million or P57.6 million). The prize money of every Nobel winner comes from the bequest left behind by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the world. Each year, a Nobel Prize is awarded to one person or group from the following fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. The Nobel Prize aims to award those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
How do Nobel nominations work?
For the Nobel Peace Prize, the nomination process starts with the Norwegian Nobel Committee, consisting of five people appointed by the Norwegian parliament, sending out inquiries and nomination forms to established academics, leaders, and laureates, who then offer Nobel Peace Prize nominations to the committee. From this list of initial nominations, the committee then narrows down the list to 300 potential laureates, whose names will be confidential for 50 years.
As such, nominations are only brought to light by the academics, leaders, and former laureates who have revealed their nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The 2021 Nobel Prize Award ceremony will be held on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
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