The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines.
She was born in Manila in 1963. She lost her father when she was one. Then her mother went to the United States, leaving Ressa and her sister with their father's family, but would come to see her two children frequently. Subsequently, her mother married an Italian-American man and returned to the Philippines. She took both of her children to the United States when Ressa was ten years old. Ressa was adopted by her stepfather and she took his last name. Her parents relocated to Toms River, New Jersey, where she went to Toms River High School North, a public school nearby. She studied molecular biology and theater as an undergraduate at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A. degree in English and certificates in theater and dance in 1986. She then was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study political theater at the University of the Philippines Diliman where she also taught several journalism courses as a faculty member in the university.
Dmitry Muratov has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions. He was born on 30 October 1961 in Kuibyshev (since 1991 officially known by its original name, Samara). He studied at the Faculty of Philology at Kuibyshev (now Samara) State University for five years, where he became interested in journalism. While in college he made contact with local newspapers and took a part-time job in journalism. From 1983 to 1985, after graduating from university, he served in the Soviet Army as a communication equipment security specialist.
In 1987 He began working as a correspondent for Volzhsky Komsomolets newspaper. His superiors were so impressed that by the end of his first year he was appointed to head of the Komsomolskaya Pravda youth department, and later was promoted to editor of news articles. Muratov left Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1992.
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