The announcement from the Nobel Peace Prize Committee naming Filipino journalist Maria Ressa as one of this year’s recipients of the prestigious award, resonated all over the country and brought pride and honor among the members of the press. Maria Ressa shares the recognition with fellow journalist, Russian Dmitry Muratov, both cited by the Nobel Committee for their fearless defense of the freedom of expression.
The Nobel Peace Prize award is a vindication for Maria Ressa, who was convicted last year by the lower court for cyberlibel charges raised against her by Wilfredo Keng, a businessman associated with the Duterte administration. The various cases against Ressa and her company, Rappler Inc., most of them still active, leave a bitter taste in the mouth along with the blatant ban imposed by the Malacanang against Rappler from joining its news conferences.
These harassment and attack against freedom of expression, apparently, did not go unnoticed by the international media. As the Nobel Committee stated, Ressa has been fearless in her defense of the free press. She stood her ground and exposed abuses of power from the administration.
More than the pride and honor for Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize is a beacon of hope for those who had been at the receiving end of the vindictiveness that defines the present leadership. The nation had witnessed how Senator Leila Delima was systematically ruined, mocked, locked up, and labeled a criminal. The country saw how Maria Lourdes Sereno, a chief justice of the Supreme Court, was removed from her post on a quo warranto petition. Both women earned the ire of the president for being brave and outspoken.
But just as the wheels of justice keep on turning, fate has its way of redeeming those who live by their convictions and principles. Maria Ressa’s Nobe Peace Prize showed the Filipino nation that justice delivers. — NND
