Two Journalists, Russia’s Muratov and Phillipines’ Ressa, Win Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia.

They were cited for their fight for freedom of expression.

The winners were announced Friday by Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Last year’s prize went to the World Food Program, which was established in 1961 at the behest of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower to fight hunger around the globe. The Rome-based U.N. agency was lauded for seeking to end starvation as “a weapon of war and conflict.”

The prestigious award is accompanied by a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize in physiology or medicine to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch.

The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded Tuesday to three scientists whose work found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change.

Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan were named as laureates of the Nobel Prize for chemistry Wednesday for finding an easier and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make compounds, including medicines and pesticides.

The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded Thursday to U.K.-based Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was recognized for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee.”

Still to come Monday is the prize for outstanding work in the field economics.

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