Maria Ressa and media groups join list of nominees for Nobel Peace Prize for 2021

Former Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre recently nominated Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021.

“In today's world, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists are the two foremost organizations for promoting media freedom and protecting journalists,” Støre said in his nomination.

“A Nobel Peace Prize for these organizations will be a recognition of the work they do, and it will recognize the thousands of journalists who report on conflicts.”

Meanwhile, Støre noted that in recent years, Ressa has been “harassed, persecuted and arrested numerous times for her coverage of corruption, especially about business people linked to President Rodrigo Duterte,” and has lived with death threats and harassment on social media.

“She is thus both a symbol and a representative of thousands of journalists around the world,” Støre said.

Ressa, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists join this year’s nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize, considered as one of the most prestigious awards in the world.

Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize come from persons who are qualified to nominate under the statutes of Nobel Foundation, which include government officials and persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Prize Committee cannot reveal the names of the unsuccessful nominees and other information about the nominations until 50 years later. However, most of the time, those who submitted their nominations were the ones who disclosed their picks.

This year’s reported Nobel Peace Prize nominees include jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, former US President Donald Trump, Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, the Black Lives Matter movement, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health Organization.

This year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October and the annual award ceremony will take place in December in Oslo, Norway.

The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner was the United Nations World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian organization that addresses hunger and promotes food security.

Some of the most notable Nobel Peace Prize winners through the years include civil rights movement leader and activist Martin Luther King Jr., former South African President Nelson Mandela and former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, Mother Theresa and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafza.