UNESCO Director-General welcomes recognition of crucial role of journalists by Nobel Peace Prize

UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, welcomes the decision of the Nobel Committee to designate two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, as the 2021 laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is the first time the prize has been awarded to journalists in 86 years.

The Director-General particularly commends Maria Ressa, who has been closely involved in the Organization’s efforts to fight the online harassment of women journalists, which UNESCO research shows affects almost three in four women journalists worldwide.

In May of this year, Ms Ressa was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the defense of press freedom in the face of danger. Accepting the award live during the World Press Freedom Day Conference organized by UNESCO in Windhoek, Namibia, in May, she especially denounced coordinated online harassment of journalists and the lack of effective responses from social media companies.

She also participated in several previous editions of the World Press Freedom Conference, as well as the recent conference organized by UNESCO, the World Food Programme and the University of South Carolina on 24 September 2021.