{"id":17961,"date":"2021-10-10T07:42:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T07:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barazalab.com\/?p=17961"},"modified":"2023-09-04T05:40:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T05:40:30","slug":"nobel-prize-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tuwele.com\/baraza_update\/nobel-prize-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings, friends:<\/span><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s big news was that the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two journalists, Maria Ressa co-founder and CEO of online news site<\/span>\u00a0Rappler\u00a0<\/span><\/i>in the Philippines, and Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper\u00a0<\/span>Novaya Gazeta<\/span><\/i>. Ressa, Muratov and both publications have been at the forefront of creating space in their respective countries for democratic expression, free speech, and in the truest sense, speaking truth to power, and at great risk to themselves. Between them, Ressa and Muratov have been arrested, harassed, threatened, and even convicted of trumped-up charges by the governments of Rodrigo Duterte and Vladimir Putin, and the journalists who work under them at\u00a0<\/span>Rappler<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Novaya Gazeta<\/span><\/i>\u00a0are just as brave to keep at such important – and dangerous – work.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>The day before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, I attended the launch of\u00a0<\/span>Pioneers, Rebels and a Few Villains<\/span><\/i>, a sweeping exploration of 150 years of journalism in Eastern Africa, edited by the inimitable Charles Onyango-Obbo. At the launch, in explaining the rationale for the book, Onyango-Obbo highlighted that \u201cthe story of the media in Africa has mostly been told as one of torment,\u201d in the book\u2019s introduction he writes, \u201cIt\u2019s a hard place to be a journalist, with death, prison and all manner of repression posing constant threats…many journalists in Africa have died destitute.\u201d<\/span>
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\n<\/span>The book, then, is an attempt not only to tell the difficult stories of persecution – and there are many – but also to \u201cextract [journalists] from under the oppressor\u2019s boot\u201d, and simply tell their stories and see their humanity. It\u2019s not an attempt to seek \u201crecognition\u201d for long-suffering, but more just getting a look into the people who do this frequently dangerous and thankless work.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>I think of Ressa and Muratov\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize win the same way – that in all the years they were being intimidated, harassed, trailed and surveilled, they kept doing their important work anyway. How? Why? These are some of the questions that\u00a0<\/span>Pioneers, Rebels and a Few Villains<\/span><\/i>\u00a0seeks to answer. Ultimately, I see in all these illustrious journalists a kind of tenacity to keep moving, keep doing the work, even if at one point all that might keep you going is an irrational momentum.\u00a0<\/span>In the words of<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Maria Ressa, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to fight the battle early, or you will be too weak to fight it later on. The worst thing you can do is to stand still.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As usual, here\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n