Posted 8 октября 2021,, 11:43

Published 8 октября 2021,, 11:43

Modified 24 декабря 2022,, 22:36

Updated 24 декабря 2022,, 22:36

Dmitry Muratov mistook a call to award him the Nobel Peace Prize for spam

Dmitry Muratov mistook a call to award him the Nobel Peace Prize for spam

8 октября 2021, 11:43
Фото: incrussia.ru
The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Russian journalist and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, at first did not believe that he had won the prestigious award: he mistook the call from the Nobel Committee for spam.

As " Gazeta.ru " informs, the decision of the Nobel Committee came as a surprise to him, so he dropped the call from Norway as "unwanted".

"I am laughing. I didn't expect it at all. I've got madness here. We will take the rap with this award for Russian journalism, which is now being tried to repress. That's all. We will try to help people who are now recognized as agents, who are now being spread rot, expelled from the country, ”the publication quotes Muratov as saying.

Commenting on the incident, Dmitry Muratov noted that he did not consider receiving the award as his merit.

“I think this is a prize for Anna Politkovskaya, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Igor Domnikov, and my deceased beloved friends and colleagues,” he said.

Muratov called the award "a prize for those people who are now being declared foreign agents, undesirable elements."

Along with Dmitry Muratov, the Filipino journalist and writer Maria Ressa became the laureate of the Peace Prize.

“Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov receive the Peace Prize for their courageous struggle for freedom of speech in the Philippines and Russia. At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who uphold this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press are facing increasingly adverse conditions, ”the Nobel Committee said.

In the entire history of the existence of the Nobel Prize, which has been awarded since 1901, Muratov became the third Russian citizen to be awarded the Peace Prize. Before him, only the human rights activist Andrei Sakharov (1975) and the first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev (1990), received the prize.

According to Vedomosti , Muratov defended freedom of speech in Russia for decades. In 1993, he and his colleagues founded Novaya Gazeta, which, according to the Nobel Committee, "has become an important source of information on critical aspects of Russian society that are rarely mentioned in other media." The work of Novaya's journalists all these years has been associated with mortal danger. Since 1993, five journalists from Novaya Gazeta have been killed: Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova, Stanislav Markelov, Anastasia Baburova and Viktor Popkov.

“Despite the killings and threats, editor-in-chief Muratov refused to give up the newspaper's independent policy. He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write whatever they want, about anything, provided that they meet the professional and ethical standards of journalism, ”said the head of the committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.

The size of the Nobel Peace Prize is SEK 10 million, or about $ 1.1 million. Muratov, in an interview with reporters, said that, together with the editorial board, he would think about how to dispose of the award. He plans to use funds to treat children with SMA, as well as to address the problems of journalism.

The Kremlin reacted to the award of the prize to Muratov. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov congratulated Muratov on his victory, noting that the awarding of the prize is a high assessment of the work of the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta.

“We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov, he consistently works according to his ideals, he is committed to his ideals. He is talented, he is brave. Of course, this is a high mark. We congratulate him, ”said Peskov.

Answering the question whether Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to congratulate Muratov on this award, the Kremlin spokesman said: “I cannot say, I don’t know. This has just become known, so give us a little time, "TASS notes.

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