“BElieve THEre is GOOD in the WORLD” – Maria Ressa, Awardee Nobel Peace Prize 2021

“Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is the first Filipino to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and, along with Russian Dmitry Muratov, is the first working journalist to win this award since the 1930s” says Rambo Talabong of Rappler itself. I journalist sense that Maria Ressa has made millions of Filipinos proud.

Mr Talabong says, “Ressa, 58, received the prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, 60, Editor In Chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Both of them lead critical newsrooms in countries where journalists are persecuted and governments enable disinformation.”

Muratov told the Nobel Committee during the awarding (from the full text of his speech, shared on Facebook):

The world has fallen out of love for democracy…
The world has become disappointed with the power elite.
The world has begun to turn to dictatorship.
We’ve got an illusion that progress can be achieved through technology and violence, not through human rights and freedoms…

He also said:

We are journalists, and our mission is clear – to distinguish between facts and fiction.
We are the prerequisite for progress.
We are the antidote against tyranny.

On her part, Maria Ressa said:

I stand before you, a representative of every journalist around the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our values and mission: to bring you the truth and hold power to account.

Here is a news item from VoA (Reuters, 13 August 2021, “Philippine Court Tosses Libel Case Against Journalist Maria Ressa[1]”):

A Philippine court has dismissed a libel case against Maria Ressa, one of several lawsuits filed against the journalist who says she has been targeted because of her news site's critical reports on President Rodrigo Duterte.

Note: “One of several (libel) lawsuits filed against the journalist” –  the Nobel Peace Prize co-won by those Filipino and Russian journalists is by way of “paying tribute this year to the world’s persecuted journalists.”

I say that persecution is a reflex action against those journalists’ emphasis on reporting – among The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, their journalism fancies The Bad and/or The Ugly!

In his acceptance speech, Muratov paid tribute to journalists who had given their lives for the profession, also saying, “I want journalists to die old.” I ask: How can they die old daring to attract persecution, court death?

The message I wish to send to Maria Ressa, 1^st Filipino Nobel Peace Prize winner, is the very same message that comes from the T-shirt she holds up with printed double-text (see above image), as it reads in orange-white print: “BELIEVE THERE IS GOOD IN THE WORLD” as well as reads in orange print: “BE THE GOOD.”

Maria Ressa says, “We need information ecosystems that live and die by facts.” I ask Dmitri Muratov, how can journalists die old if they expose themselves to unnecessary danger when young, going after facts that make people look bad and/or ugly?

My advice to all journalists is: “Be The Good. Live The Good. Go For The Good!”@517

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[1]https://www.voanews.com/a/east-asia-pacific_philippine-court-tosses-libel-case-against-journalist-maria-ressa/6209532.html