Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov is auctioning the Nobel medal for Ukrainian refugees amid the elimination of independent media in his country, which Moscow says fewer and fewer people support its military campaign.
Muratov is the co-founder and longtime editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper that criticizes the Kremlin, founded in 1993 with money from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s Nobel Peace Prize.
For years it has opposed the strictest restrictions on opposition media, but in March it suspended its online and print activities after it became a crime – facing 15 years in prison – for reporting anything about the conflict that strayed from the government’s line.
“My country has invaded another state, Ukraine. There are currently 15.5 million refugees… We thought for a long time about what we could do… and we thought that everyone should give them something valuable, something important to themselves,” he said. In an interview with Reuters.
Muratov said that auctioning off the gold medal means that refugees who have somehow lost their memories and “pasts” share their fate.
“Now they want to take away your future, but we need to ensure that your future is protected… The most important thing we want to say and show is that human solidarity is necessary.”
Muratov’s medal is sold by Heritage Auctions on World Refugee Day, 20 June, with the support of the award committee.
The award was given to Muratov and Maria Ressa, a journalist from the Philippines last year, in acknowledgment of the worldwide right to freedom of expression at stake.
Muratov dedicated the award to Novaya Gazeta journalists who were killed for their work, including some of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics.
source: Noticias
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