Nobel Peace Prize: How brave journalists like Maria Ressa expand freedoms for everyone

Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is the environment where there is no place for fear, where you can say what you want without having to think about what happens to you after you have spoken. Many writers and journalists exercise that freedom, expecting international laws and norms to protect their right. But citing spurious grounds such as national security, maintaining harmony, defaming powerful individuals or ideas, or falsely claiming that the speech spreads hate, governments – and others who wield power – seek to silence the gutsy journalists and writers, cartoonists and artists, musicians and poets who defy them.

Maria Ressa is one of them. She operates in the Philippines, which is arguably in a worse space today than it was under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos had imposed martial law and suspended provisions of constitution, which permitted him to act with impunity against his critics. Rodrigo Duterte has not declared an emergency, but he has used vituperative language against critics, encouraged his followers to harass and intimidate those who oppose him, made misogynistic remarks against women human rights defenders and reporters, and tacitly approved of a raft of extra-judicial executions.

As his presidency ends, he has decided to…

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