Nobel Peace Prize for Maria Ressa and Dmitri A Muratov a win for all journalists calling out authoritarianism

It’s another matter that many of India’s journalists take their journalistic vows seriously and report “both sides” diligently. Honesty is the credo. And these are not the ‘celeb’ TV anchors and print editors with ideology stitched to their collars, owing allegiance to media barons. These are journalists who face authoritarianism day in and day out. Some of them even get killed in the line of work. The latest example is the photojournalist who was killed by a marauding jeep in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.The vehicle was allegedly being driven by the son of a minister in the Modi government. So far, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not tweeted his grief though he has presumably not forgotten that he is on Twitter. Rest assured, Modi will not tweet “congrats” to Putin for Dmitri getting the Nobel.India’s WaPo journalist Rana Ayyub tweeted that her “day was made” when she learned that “my dear friend Maria Ressa” had won the Nobel. Ayyub claims she herself is a much-persecuted journalist. Her WaPo opinion pieces, she says, are examples of “speaking truth to power”.



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