Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of growing threat of misinformation | Media News

Disinformation poses a growing threat to security and democracy, Nobel Peace Prize winners told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview.

Filipino Maria Ressa said the biggest threat to democracy is “when lies come true,” and Dmitry Muratov said Russians say society is now in a dangerous “post-truth era.”

Norwegian Nobel Committee he gave the prize At a rally in Oslo, Norway on Friday, the two journalists were “charged with their efforts to preserve freedom of expression, which is a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace.”

Journalists and their groups have been attacked and harassed in their own countries for their journalism.

In 2012, Ressa, 58, created Rappler, an investigative journalism website critical of the Philippine government.

In 1993, the 59-year-old Muratov Novaya Gazeta was one of the founders of the independent Russian newspaper, one of the few media outlets that does not follow the Kremlin’s line.

The last time a journalist was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was in 1935 when it was awarded to Germany. Carl von Ossietzky, warned the world that Hitler was re-arming.

Von Ossietzky was unable to travel to Norway to receive the award because he was imprisoned in a Nazi camp.

Ressa told Al Jazeera in an interview from Norway after the event that he sees parallels between that time and the present as authoritarianism is a growing threat.

“I think that’s the signal that the Nobel Committee was sending. We are still in a similar moment – a historic, existential moment – and we need to do something, ”said Ressa.

He said the biggest threat to democracy is “when lies come true”. Because it breaks our shared reality and allows us to manipulate the public, ”Ressa said.

Muratov also told Al Jazeera that disinformation is a major and growing threat.

“Manipulation leads to war,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. Now everyone is concerned with their own ideas and not their own, ”Muratov said.

“Social scientists have shown that even if they know what the truth is and what the lie is, 75% of people will take the lie as true as they like the lie. This is already happening. We are at the bottom of the manipulation of the human mind. ”

“We are on the same side fighting for the facts”

In an acceptance speech earlier on Friday, Ressa criticized US technology giants such as Facebook for spreading lies and spreading hatred for profit.

Ressa told Al Jazeera that the events were being questioned and that news organizations needed to work together and help each other.

“The days when we used to compete with each other are gone. We are now on the same side fighting for the facts. On the other hand, what I always call them … are new gatekeepers, technology companies that have relinquished responsibility for the public sphere, ”Ressa said.

He said many countries are using the same authoritarian tactics to repress the media and dissent “through the arms of social media, and then through the arms of the law.”

“This social media armament ‘removes’ events … How can we avoid the doubts of events? … How can we do our job if we break our trust? People watching – do they believe us? That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. “

When a recent poll by Al Jazeera asked viewers if they trusted journalism, 71% said no.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Philippines Philippines Maria Ressa spoke at the Oslo City Hall (Norway) at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. [Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo]

Attacks

The award comes as the worldwide violation of journalists ’rights and media freedoms is growing.

Novaya Gazeta is one of the last independent Russian newspapers not to be labeled as a foreign agent.

Between 2000 and 2009, Six journalists from Novaya Gazeta were killed, including an investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya He was shot dead in the elevator of his apartment in 2006.

His report exposed high-level corruption in Russia and violations of Chechen rights.

“However [the fact that] Russian journalism is now going through a dark valley, we do not reject our principles, ”Muratov told Al Jazeera about how his newspaper is being threatened by violence.

Much of Ressa’s work has focused on President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial war on drugs, which has had an impact. extrajudicial killings 7,000 people. As a result, he has been subjected to insulting campaigns and legal actions by the government.

To travel to Norway to receive his award, Ressa had to seek permission from four Philippine courts.

He is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for defamation for an article involving a former Supreme Court judge in corruption.

The Brussels International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a statement on Thursday that the number of journalists in prison has risen, with 365 journalists imprisoned in 2021 compared to 235 last year.

China has jailed the most journalists in 102 prisons, Turkey has 34 journalists in prisons, Belarus and Eritrea 29, Egypt 27 and Vietnam 21.

Russia still has 12 journalists behind in prison, and three journalists were killed in the Philippines.

At least 45 journalists and media workers have been killed this year, 33 of them in targeted attacks, according to the IFJ.

Ressa said he was “very lucky” to be with the Norwegian audience, just 36 hours ago, when Jesus Malabanan was a former colleague. shot dead – Becoming the 22nd journalist to die in the Philippines since Duterte came to power in 2016.

When asked for advice from a young woman journalist, Ressa said that “even though the first world, our world, is dead,” there is still “excitement because you can help create what journalism will look like in the 21st century.”

“Think about what your worst fear is, and then embrace it,” Ressa said.

“What you fear most is touching, holding, imagining and then thinking about what you’re going to do if that happens. Come up with a plan and then leave. You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people.