The U.S. and the Taliban Discuss Security and Terrorism Concerns in Doha

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module ad-300-250"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105781"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module video-2" data-src="https://time.com/6105781/us-taliban-talks/" data-widget-id="SB_4" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>A U.S. delegation met with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to discuss issues including security, terrorism and human rights, their first direct talks since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August.</p> <p>The “candid and professional” discussions covered the need for safe passage of U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghan partners, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Sunday. The U.S. also called for “the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society.”</p> <p>“The two sides also discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people,” Price said, adding that “the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words.”<br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p>The meetings were among the first formal engagements between the State Department and the Taliban since the U.S. evacuated its diplomats and troops from Kabul. The Biden administration has wrestled with how to deal with the Taliban, which have taken the mantle of Afghanistan’s government but are still officially labeled a terrorist organization and haven’t been given access to Afghanistan’s central bank reserves.</p> <p>After sweeping to power in late August, the Taliban have seen their authority challenged by Islamic State fighters, prompting fears that the country could descend into civil war once again. More than 40 people were believed killed on Friday after a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz.</p> <p>U.S. officials have said they’re still trying to help Afghans who want to flee the country, including vulnerable women and girls and some of the thousands of people who worked with the U.S. government over the course of a 20-year occupation. Several dozen American citizens — mostly of Afghan descent — are also estimated to remain in the country.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/QB48mcs4duM" width="1" />

The U.S. and the Taliban Discuss Security and Terrorism Concerns in Doha

A U.S. delegation met with senior Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to discuss issues including security, te...

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Thousands March in Brussels to Demand Tougher Climate Action

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module ad-300-250"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105716"></div> </div> </aside> <div class="content-block"> <div class="ng-star-inserted"> <p>BRUSSELS — Thousands of people young and old marched through Brussels on Sunday to push world leaders to take bolder action to fight climate change at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow starting this month.</p> <p>Some 80 organizations took part in the protest, aiming for the biggest such event in the European Union’s capital since the start of the coronavirus crisis, which stopped the climate movement’s weekly marches in its tracks.</p> <p>Cyclists, families with children, and white-haired demonstrators filled city streets, chanting slogans demanding climate justice and waving banners in English, French and Dutch. One carried a stuffed polar bear on her head.</p> <p>Environmentalists worry that the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as the COP26, in Glasgow starting Oct. 31 will produce policies that don’t do enough to slash carbon emissions and slow the warming of the planet.</p> <p>The crowd included a mix of people with and without masks. With one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Belgium is starting to ease virus restrictions and allow such gatherings again.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change" target="_blank">https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change.</a></p> </div> </div> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/KRIOQTF8qxo" width="1" />

Thousands March in Brussels to Demand Tougher Climate Action

BRUSSELS — Thousands of people young and old marched through Brussels on Sunday to push world leaders to take bolder action to figh...

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Taliban Say They Won’t Work With U.S. to Contain Islamic State

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105667"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105667/taliban-isis-united-states/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August.</p> <p>Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives are to meet Saturday and Sunday in Doha, the capital of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Officials from both sides have said issues include reining in extremist groups and the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country. The Taliban have signaled flexibility on evacuations.</p> <p>Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press there would be no cooperation with Washington on going after the increasingly active Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan. IS has taken responsibility for a number of attacks, including a suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens as they prayed in a mosque.<br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p>“We are able to tackle Daesh independently,” Shaheen said, when asked whether the Taliban would work with the U.S. to contain the Islamic State affiliate. He used an Arabic acronym for IS.</p> <p>IS has carried out relentless assaults on the country’s Shiite Muslims since emerging in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. IS is also seen as the greatest threat to the United States.</p> <p>The weekend meetings in Doha are the first since U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence, and the Taliban rose to power in the nation. The U.S. has made it clear the talks are not a preamble to recognition.</p> <p>The talks also come on the heels of two days of difficult discussions between Pakistani officials and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Islamabad. The focus of those talks was also Afghanistan. Pakistani officials urged the U.S. to engage with Afghanistan’s new rulers and release billions of dollars in international funds to stave off an economic meltdown.</p> <p>Pakistan also had a message for the Taliban, urging them to become more inclusive and pay attention to human rights and its minority ethnic and religious groups.</p> <p>Afghanistan’s Shiite clerics assailed the Taliban rulers following Friday’s attack demanding greater protection at their places of worship. The IS <a href="https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-prayer-religion-2b9d9863da38661ba6fa186a72ac5352" target="_blank">affiliate claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as a Uygher Muslim.</a> The claim said the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghers to meet demands from China. It was the deadliest attack since foreign troops left Afghanistan at the end of August.</p> <p>Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.-based Wilson Center, said Friday’s attack could be a harbinger of more violence. Most of the Uyghur militants belong to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has found a safe haven in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan for decades.</p> <p>“If the (IS) claim is true, China’s concerns about terrorism in (Afghanistan)—to which the Taliban claims to be receptive—will increase,” he tweeted following the attack</p> <p>Both Afghanistan and Pakistan want the anticipated economic benefits from China’s multi-billion Belt and Road initiative project linking Beijing to Central and South Asia. They have been willing to ignore China’s persecution of its Muslim Uyghur population. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid last month called the Chinese project the region’s most important economic venture.</p> <p>During the Doha talks, U.S. officials will also seek to hold Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave Afghanistan, along with Afghans who once worked for the U.S. military or government and other Afghan allies, a U.S. official said.</p> <p>The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the meetings.</p> <p>The Biden administration has fielded questions and complaints about the slow pace of U.S.-facilitated evacuations from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since the U.S. withdrawal.</p> <p>___</p> <p>Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/ctTRF4E6J0s" width="1" />

Taliban Say They Won’t Work With U.S. to Contain Islamic State

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an ...

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As Bannon Bucks Subpoena, Trump Fights Power of Jan. 6 Probe

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105290"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105290/steve-bannon-subpoean-trump-january-6-commission/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For months, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has waited to hear from the people closest to Donald Trump to shed light on what the former President was doing as hundreds of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. On Thursday at midnight, his longtime advisor Stephen Bannon blew past his subpoena deadline to submit documents to the probe, delivering a setback to the beleaguered committee and teeing up a potential long legal battle to come.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Sept. 23, the committee gave Bannon and Trump’s former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Pentagon official Kash Patel an Oct. 7 deadline to respond to subpoena letters asking them to appear for depositions and provide materials relevant to its investigation.</span><br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bannon has “indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President,” according to a joint statement issued on Friday by committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy.). Meadows and Patel are “engaging with the Select Committee,” the statement added, though the extent of their compliance is unclear. Scavino, who was not mentioned in the statement, has reportedly not responded to the subpoena as of Friday. A spokesperson for the panel declined to comment on the status of Scavino.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We think those four individuals have clear information as to what Donald Trump was doing that day,” Thompson told reporters on Sept. 24. “Criminal contempt is on the table … And if it comes to that, there will be no reluctance at all on the committee to do that.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a letter first reported by</span> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/07/trump-jan-6-committees-subpoena-515593" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Politico</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Trump’s lawyer asked the four former aides not to share any testimony or documents, claiming that records related to the events of Jan. 6 are protected “from disclosure by the executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The decision by Trump to push back against demands from the probe—his first attempt at blocking key testimony in the commission—raises a raft of legal questions about how far his team can go in order to withhold compelling information. During his four year tenure, Trump dramatically expanded the powers of the presidency. Now, nine months out of office, he is still seeking to use the privileges of that office to shield himself and delay the committee’s proceedings, legal experts say.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If the courts actually have a chance to rule on the merits of Trump’s claims of executive privilege, Trump will most likely lose,” says Jonathan Shaub, a law professor at the University of Kentucky who previously served in the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice. “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The real question will be how long Trump is able to tie up the issue in the courts, including by appealing up to the Supreme Court if necessary.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Individuals who refuse to comply with the committee’s subpoenas could be prosecuted by the Justice Department and face a year in prison with a fine of up to $100,000 if convicted of criminal contempt of Congress.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">But if Trump can tie up the executive privilege issue in the courts long enough to outlast the Jan. 6 committee’s speedy timeline for a final report—planned for sometime in 2022—Shaub says the committee could become frustrated by their inability to get information and simply move on.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Balance of power fights between Congress and the White House are as old as the presidency itself, and Trump relied heavily on the claims of executive privilege to block records requests from the Hill while he was in office, particularly during his first impeachment trial and attempts to hide his tax records. But executive privilege for a former president has never been codified in the face of a congressional subpoena. Harry Truman tried in 1953, claiming it allowed him to ignore a subpoena request to testify before a congressional committee after he left office. The committee ultimately dropped the request.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Joe Biden, who is in charge of some of the federal agencies that have the records Trump doesn’t want his former colleagues to hand over, has the power to authorize or block a former president from asserting their executive privilege. On Friday, he rejected Trump’s request for privilege over an initial batch of documents sought by the Jan. 6 commission, writing in a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration that an “assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This will be an ongoing process and this is just the first set of documents,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at Friday’s press briefing. “And we will evaluate questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis, but the President has also been clear that he believes it to be of the utmost importance for both Congress and the American people to have a complete understanding of the events of that day to prevent them from happening again.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experts suggest the issue could go all the way to the Supreme Court.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Because the constitutional law in this area is so unsettled, courts will be unlikely to dismiss Trump’s claims out of hand,” Shaub says.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“The current statutory law and regulations do make clear that President Biden gets the final say on any claims of executive privilege, but Trump will raise a constitutional challenge, which would override any contrary statutes or regulations.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If it does go up to the high court, a rarely used precedent from a landmark 1977 ruling in</span> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nixon v. Administrator of General Services</span></i> <span style="font-weight: 400;">may help Trump’s case. In the ruling, the court recognized that Richard Nixon could assert executive privilege claims over official records from his administration even though he was no longer the president. The</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">court, however, also said in its judgement that executive privilege “is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">serious showing of presidential misconduct or wrongdoing could erode—or possibly eliminate—any privilege claim</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, says</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Kate Shaw, a professor at Cardozo School of Law who previously served in Obama’s White House counsel’s office.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s likely that many of the documents requested reveal former President Trump working to undermine the results of an election he had clearly lost,” Shaw says. “That’s not the sort of material that should be shielded from disclosure by the doctrine of executive privilege.” She also believes any decision made by Biden to grant or deny executive privilege to Trump should carry “substantial weight” in the eyes of a court.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taylor Budowich, Trump’s current communications director, said that the committee’s Jan. 6 records request was “outrageously broad” and lacked “both legal precedent and legislative merit.” The “executive privilege will be defended” on behalf of the former president, he said in a statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the deadline for subpoena compliance by Trump aides passed on Thursday night, the committee issued a third round of subpoenas to organizers of the “Stop the Steal” rally that brought Trump supporters together prior to the attack on the Capitol.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy,” Thompson said in a statement on Thursday. “Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protestors became rioters.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thompson said he expects these witnesses to cooperate fully with the probe, adding that the select committee needs to understand “all the details” about the events leading up to the Capitol attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In total, the committee has issued 18 subpoenas, ranging from the former Trump aides to rally organizers who are said to have played a role in the violent storming of the Capitol, in which five people died and 140 police officers were injured.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Whether GOP lawmakers who were in contact with Trump during the insurrection, or in the days leading up to it, will also receive subpoenas is yet to be determined by the probe, though Thompson noted it’s being discussed and “there will be no reluctance to do it.”</span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/67KxHeQKGVM" width="1" />

As Bannon Bucks Subpoena, Trump Fights Power of Jan. 6 Probe

For months, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has waited to hear from the people closest to Donald T...

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Trump Hotel Lost $70 Million Despite Taking Millions From Foreign Governments

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105527"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module video-2" data-src="https://time.com/6105527/trump-hotel-washington-business/" data-widget-id="SB_4" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s company lost more than $70 million on his Washington, D.C., hotel during his four years in office despite taking in millions from foreign governments, according to documents released Friday by a congressional committee investigating his business.</p> <p>The House Committee on Oversight and Reform said the luxury hotel just a few blocks from the White House was struggling so badly that the Trump Organization had to inject $27 million from other parts of its business and got preferential treatment from a major lender to delay payments on a $170 million loan.</p> <p>The committee said the losses came despite an estimated $3.7 million in revenue from foreign governments, business that ethics experts say Trump should have refused because it posed conflicts of interest with his role as president.<br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p>The Trump Organization said in a statement that the findings of the Democrat-led committee were misleading and false, and it did not receive any special treatment from a lender.</p> <p>“This report is nothing more than continued political harassment in a desperate attempt to mislead the American public and defame Trump in pursuit of their own agenda,” the company said.</p> <p>The documents from the committee, the first public disclosure of audited financial statements from the hotel, show steep losses despite a brisk business from lobbyists, businesses and Republican groups while Trump was in office.</p> <p>The loan delay by Deutsche Bank to the president was an “undisclosed preferential treatment” that should have been reported by the president because the bank has substantial business in the U.S., the committee said in a letter to the General Services Administration, the federal agency overseeing the hotel. The hotel is leased by the federal government to the Trump Organization.</p> <p>“The documents … raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump’s lease with GSA and the agency’s ability to manage the former president’s conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant,” said a statement by the committee’s Democratic co-chairs, Carolyn Maloney of New York and Gerald Connelly of Virginia.</p> <p>The GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p> <p>Trump’s company has been trying to sell the 263-room hotel since the fall of 2019 but has struggled to find buyers during the coronavirus pandemic at a reported initial asking price of more than $500 million.</p> <p>The head of government ethics watchdog CREW said the losses shed new light on Trump’s refusal to ban foreign governments from patronizing his business.</p> <p>“The only lifeline was the corrupt business coming from people and organizations and governments seeking to influence him,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “His use of the presidency to get business was absolutely essential to stemming the flow of losses.”</p> <p>To allay concerns about possibly profiting off foreign governments, Trump promised to send payments to the U.S. Treasury on earnings from his business annually. The payments totaled $356,000 for the first three years of his presidency. Critics of the voluntary deal say Trump’s definition of earnings is unclear and gave the president plenty of room to lowball the figure.</p> <p>Though the Washington hotel was hurt badly by pandemic-related shutdowns last year, the audited financial statements released by the committee show it was suffering every year it was open before that, too. It lost a nearly $50 million in the first three years of his presidency, then $22 million last year.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/politics/~4/YbIKHphyan0" width="1" />

Trump Hotel Lost $70 Million Despite Taking Millions From Foreign Governments

(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s company lost more than $70 million on his Washington, D.C., hotel during his four year...

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More Than 130 Countries Reach Deal on Corporate Minimum Tax

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105546"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105546/global-corporate-minimum-tax-deal/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>(FRANKFURT, Germany) — More than 130 countries have agreed on sweeping changes to how big global companies are taxed, including a 15% minimum corporate rate designed to deter multinationals from stashing profits in low-tax countries.</p> <p>The deal announced Friday is an attempt to address the ways globalization and digitalization have changed the world economy. It would allow countries to tax some of the earnings of companies located elsewhere that make money through online retailing, web advertising and other activities.</p> <p>U.S. President Joe Biden has been one of the driving forces behind the agreement as governments around the world seek to boost revenue following the COVID-19 pandemic.<br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p>The agreement among 136 countries representing 90% of the global economy was announced by the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development, which hosted the talks that led to it. The OECD said that the minimum tax would reap some $150 billion for governments.</p> <p>“Today’s agreement represents a once-in-a-generation accomplishment for economic diplomacy,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. She said it would end a “race to the bottom” in which countries outbid each other with lower tax rates.</p> <p>“Rather than competing on our ability to offer low corporate rates,” she said, “America will now compete on the skills of our workers and our capacity to innovate, which is a race we can win.”</p> <p>The deal faces several hurdles before it can take effect. U.S. approval of related tax legislation proposed by Biden will be key, especially since the U.S. is home to many of the biggest multinational companies. A rejection by Congress would cast uncertainty over the entire project.</p> <p>The big U.S. tech companies like Google and Amazon have supported the OECD negotiations. One reason is that countries would agree to withdraw individual digital services taxes they have imposed on them in return for the right to tax a part of their earnings under the global scheme.</p> <p>That means the companies would deal with just the one international tax regime, not a multitude of different ones depending on the country.</p> <p>“This accord opens the way to a true tax revolution for the 21st century,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. “Finally the digital giants will pay their just share in taxes in the countries — including France — where they produce.”</p> <p>On Thursday, Ireland announced that it would join the agreement, ditching a low-tax policy that has led companies like Google and Facebook to base their European operations there.</p> <p>Although the Irish agreement was a step forward for the deal, developing countries have raised objections and Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have indicated they will not sign up.</p> <p>Anti-poverty and tax fairness advocates have said the bulk of new revenue would go to wealthier countries and offer less to developing countries that are more dependent on corporate taxes. The G-24 group of developing countries said that without a bigger share of revenue from reallocated profits, the deal would be “sub-optimal” and “not sustainable even in the short run.”</p> <p>The deal will be taken up by the Group of 20 finance ministers next week, and then by G-20 leaders for final approval at a summit in Rome at the end of October.</p> <p>Countries would sign up to a diplomatic agreement to implement the tax on companies that have no physical presence in a country but earn profits there, such as through digital services. That provision would affect around 100 global firms.</p> <p>The second part of the deal, the global minimum of at least 15%, would apply to companies with more than 750 billion euros ($864 billion) in revenue and be passed into domestic law by countries according to model rules developed at the OECD. A top-up provision would mean tax avoided overseas would have to be paid at home. So long as at least the major headquarters countries implement the minimum tax, the deal would have most of its desired effect.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/zasc4yCKl9w" width="1" />

More Than 130 Countries Reach Deal on Corporate Minimum Tax

(FRANKFURT, Germany) — More than 130 countries have agreed on sweeping changes to how big global companies are taxed, including a 1...

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‘It Is a Battle for Facts.’ What Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Understands About Why She Was Chosen

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105407"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105407/maria-ressa-nobel-prize-interview/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>If Maria Ressa long has been known to people who follow the news, she has become absolutely essential to anyone grappling with why the news has gotten harder and harder to follow.</p> <p>Born in Manila and raised in New Jersey, Ressa, who is 58, worked for CNN for years, then in 2012 co-founded <a href="https://www.rappler.com/" target="_blank">Rappler</a>, a vibrant online news site in the Philippines. Four years later an <a href="https://time.com/5475492/maria-ressa-rappler-person-of-the-year-2018/">incendiary populist named Rodrigo Duterte</a> was elected President of a country where, a practical matter, Facebook <em>is</em> the Internet. Rappler exposed the hidden hand of his supporters in viral posts, trolls and malign disinformation, as well as the feebleness of Facebook’s efforts to police itself. Since then Ressa has lived at the dangerous intersection of despotism and social media. <a href="https://time.com/5561018/philippines-maria-ressa-arrested-fraud/">Arrested</a>, threatened and harassed online, in 2018 she was named a TIME Person of the Year under the heading, <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/">“The Guardians and the War on Truth.”</a><br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p>And now Ressa has been awarded the <a href="https://time.com/6105339/maria-ressa-nobel-peace-prize-philippines/">Nobel Prize for Peace</a>, along with <a href="https://time.com/6105332/dmitry-muratov-nobel-peace-prize/">Dmitry Muratov</a>, a founder of <em>Novaya Gazeta</em>, an independent Russian newspaper at which six reporters have been murdered. A few hours after getting the news from Oslo, Ressa spoke to TIME by phone from Manila. Her new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Stand-Dictator-Maria-Ressa-ebook/dp/B096X74326" target="_blank"><em>How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future</em></a>, is slated for publication in April.</p> <figure class="inline-longform_large alignnone"><img alt="" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?w=1000&w=1000" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg 2400w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, 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730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-2.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Moises Saman—Magnum Photos for TIME</span></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Congratulations. What do you think the impact will be of this? When TIME named you a <a href="https://api.time.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=6105407&action=edit">Person of the Year in 2018</a>, you talked about its practical effect in protecting you and your work.</strong></p> <p>It was a shield. It acted like a shield. And it actually helped us survive because that was December 2018, and <a href="https://time.com/5528416/maria-ressa-arrested-cyber-libel/">my arrests</a> began like two or three months later, and it was going to get worse. Imagine if you hadn’t done that.</p> <p>That was also when I realized that the only defense we have is <a href="https://time.com/5575490/maria-ressa-time-100/">to shine the light</a>. And you had given us more battery power, a global megaphone. And that gave us breathing space to keep doing our jobs. It could have been much worse, I think, without.</p> <p><strong>So what does the Nobel Peace Prize do?</strong></p> <p>Oh, my gosh, I can’t quite fathom yet. I shouldn’t say this, but I thought it would be <a href="https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096084/alexei-navalny/">[Alexei] Navalny</a>. But it does make sense. The statement they made is exactly the same reason why you did the <a href="https://time.com/5793800/maria-ressa-the-guardians-100-women-of-the-year/">Guardians in 2018</a>. The platforms that deliver the news are biased against news. And we are being insidiously manipulated. All of that is breaking down trust. Journalists are the target of this.</p> <p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://time.com/5820620/maria-ressa-coronavirus-democracy/">Maria Ressa: We Can’t Let the Virus Infect Democracy</a></em></p> <p>It’s like we bought into a digital landscape that commoditizes news. So the real news that we do, which takes time and money, is placed in the same setting as the gossip down the street. And the gossip always wins. So it is sugar and vegetables.</p> <p>This made me realize that it is existential. It is a battle for facts. And we’re at the front line, and it has gotten far more dangerous than it has been in the past. I think that also shows the role of the journalists in fixing this and fixing the mess that we’re in right now.</p> <p><strong>Where were you when you heard?</strong></p> <p>I was live in a panel of the independent news groups in Southeast Asia, and they had just come from watching <em><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/a-thousand-cuts/" target="_blank">A Thousand Cuts</a></em> [the Frontline documentary on Ressa]. So we were talking about the survival of independent media in Southeast Asia, and how do we move forward? Right. And in the middle of that, I get a call. And I mean, it just said “Norway.” My God.</p> <p>I said, “Hold on a second,” and muted and I took the call. And then of course when it was announced, I went from kind of stunned disbelief to like–when I started to talk about why journalism is important, and what we had gone through, that’s when I teared up.</p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/rapplerdotcom/status/1446513986560675840"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">WATCH: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulates <a href="https://twitter.com/mariaressa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">@mariaressa</a> and Dmitiry Muratov for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NobelPrize?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">#NobelPrize</a><br /> Read: <a href="https://t.co/Xtr0VsxMrf" target="_blank">https://t.co/Xtr0VsxMrf</a> <a href="https://t.co/3VjNufVazU" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/3VjNufVazU</a></p> <p>— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/rapplerdotcom/status/1446513986560675840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 8, 2021</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p>It comes at this strange time for me and Rappler. January is our 10th anniversary. And this shows me exactly how much the world of news has changed since the time we created Rappler, which was about building communities of action, which was built on social media, with the optimism of this technology that could help jump-start development, the dreams that we had. And it worked. It did work all the way until 2016. And then the nightmare. We saw that nightmare. We were plunged into it first. [The populist Rodrigo Duterte became President of the Philippines in June, four months before Donald Trump was elected in the U.S.]</p> <p>It just shows the role that journalists play because it goes back to without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. How can you have democracy without that? This is the fabric that holds us together: the shared reality.</p> <p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567672/maria-ressa/">Maria Ressa Is on the 2019 TIME 100 List</a></em></p> <p>I hope that it will give energy at home. Because this is the week where Filipino candidates announce what positions they’re running for. And Bongbong Marcos said he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/asia/philippines-bongbong-marcos-president-bid-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">would run</a> for the presidency. And the opposition leader said she would run. So here we are. Think about this: 35 years after the Marcos family was chased out of the Philippines by People Power, the son comes back and is going to run for president. In 2019, we exposed the disinformation networks of Marcos, which even more extensive than Duterte’s. He started his in 2015. And it’s on YouTube, it’s Facebook. How do you change history? You do it through social media. You do it by seeding metadata. It <em>is</em> death by a thousand cuts. It’s historical denialism. We have a lot at stake in the May elections and American social media platforms will play a role in whether we will have integrity of elections.</p> <p><strong>Have you met your co-winner, Dmitry Muratov?</strong></p> <p>No, we haven’t. But I do know the organization.</p> <figure class="inline-longform_vertical alignnone"><img alt="" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?w=700&w=700" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg 1601w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=768,1151 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=1025,1536 1025w, 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192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=267,400 267w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=133,200 133w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=85,128 85w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-2018-guardians-nobel-peace-prize-2021-3.jpg?resize=167,250 167w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Moises Saman—Magnum Photos for TIME</span></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>So this was already <a href="https://time.com/6104899/facebook-reckoning-frances-haugen/">a bad week</a> for Facebook. In 2019 you wrote for TIME, the headline was “<a href="https://time.com/5505458/facebook-maria-ressa-philippines/">Facebook Let My Government Target Me. Here’s Why I Still Work With Them</a>.”</strong> <strong>Is that still where you are?</strong></p> <p>What changed is I’m also part of the <a href="https://the-citizens.com/real-facebook-oversight/" target="_blank">Real Facebook Oversight Board</a>. And yes, we’re still one of two Filipino fact-checking partners of Facebook in the Philippines. But I’m also far more frontal. I think the shift for me happened when I started writing my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Terror-Eyewitness-Al-Qaedas-Operations/dp/0743251334/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=0743251334&psc=1" target="_blank">first book</a> [<em>Seeds of Terror</em>]. I was looking at radicalization, the way the virulent ideology that powered al Qaeda was being transmitted. Like, how were people going to become suicide bombers? So I was looking at information cascades and an individual, the hijacker from 911, behaves very differently when they’re in a group where peer pressure comes in. So this is like the Solomon Asch experiment. Are you familiar with that?</p> <p><strong>No.</strong></p> <p>Solomon Asch had this experiment where you have three lines, and there’s six people around the table. The sixth person is the one who is the test case, the five people are actors. And he asked: Name the shortest line, A, B or C. The shortest line is in fact A, and the longest line is C. The five people go before the test subject and name the longest line as the shortest line. And 75% of test subjects will follow the group–75% said the longest line is shortest line despite what their eyes show them.</p> <p>So the group is different. And when you’re talking social networks and scale, the group exerts pressure on the individual and emergent behavior creates behavior. Which is what social media is doing now. Violence, anger, <a href="https://time.com/5949210/facebook-misinformation-2020-election-report/">disinformation</a> is what pumps through this. That’s kind of what <a href="https://time.com/6103645/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen/">Francis Haugen</a> has shown us.</p> <p>While the Senate is focused on <a href="https://time.com/6098771/instagram-body-image-teen-girls/">Instagram and the impact on teenagers</a>, what about the impact on journalists? We are being distributed on the same platform that is now being used by autocrats and dictators to actually change behavior with microtargeting. It happens in the dark. I’m much more adamant about legislation. I’ve done the Forum on Democracy and Information. We <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/forum-information-and-democracy-250-recommendations-how-stop-infodemics" target="_blank">came out</a> in November last year with 12 structural solutions, 250 tactical ones. I was co-chair with Marietje Schaake. And people like <a href="https://time.com/5695252/christopher-wylie-cambridge-analytica-book/">Chris Wiley</a> and <a href="https://time.com/5933989/facebook-oversight-regulating-social-media/">Roger McNamee</a> were on it, some of the same people that we also dragged into the Real Facebook Oversight Board.</p> <p><strong>Since the “cyberlibel” <a href="https://time.com/5853556/maria-ressa-rappler-cyber-libel-philippines/">conviction</a> last year, you’ve had to stop traveling abroad. Will you be able to go to Oslo in December?</strong></p> <p>It’s not a final conviction. But I’ve had four requests that have been turned down. Last December, my mom was diagnosed with cancer, she had a mastectomy and I wanted to be there and court denied it at the last minute. I will put in for travel to Oslo, and I will fight for my right to travel.</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/rZXZF8M-_cY" width="1" />

‘It Is a Battle for Facts.’ What Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Understands About Why She Was Chosen

If Maria Ressa long has been known to people who follow the news, she has become absolutely essential to anyone grappling with why ...

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Employers Are Starting to Adopt ‘Menstrual Leave’ Policies. Could It Backfire?

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105254"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105254/menstrual-leave-policies/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a municipal employee of five years in the Catalan city of Girona, Spain Miriam Requena has an array of benefits: sick leave, personal days and paid vacation time.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">When menstrual leave was added to the list, she was initially surprised.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I had never realized that we needed this kind of flexibility,” 31-year old Requena told TIME. But she quickly saw its value. “It shatters all taboos to be able to say ‘listen, I’m menstruating, sometimes that provokes certain pains that impede me from going to work or being 100% productive.’”</span></p> <p>[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city of Girona recently became the first city in Spain to consider a menstrual leave policy for its more than 1,300 employees in April. A clutch of municipalities soon followed suit, from the Catalan towns of</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Ripoll</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Les Borges Blanques</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to the eastern city of</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Castellón de la Plana</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, casting a handful of public administrations in Spain as standard-bearers</span> and pioneers in Western Europe <span style="font-weight: 400;">for a workplace policy that has sparked fierce debate around the world.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Girona is “carving out a new path” when it comes to women’s labor rights, Deputy Mayor Maria Àngels Planas told reporters in June after the city council</span> <a href="https://web.girona.cat/noticies?id=10737640&fbclid=IwAR1oD-b3QLq6r9K1tBo_vD6dcC3NsylLXj9f6V9-JLRPcEsDrwu_eweX5lE" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">voted overwhelmingly</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to allow people who menstruate—</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">women, transgender men and nonbinary individuals—</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">to take up to eight hours of leave a month, which they would then need to work as overtime within a three-month period. “We’re eliminating the taboo that exists around menstruation and the pain that some women suffer—that we suffer—during menstruation.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The policy, championed by local labor union Intersindical-CSC, was initially met with resistance from some employees. “We had some men who wondered why they weren’t getting leave while there were women who worried that this would reinforce the idea that menstruation is painful or that we’re victims,” says union rep Èrika Andreu.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Without such a policy, though, some are left making the difficult choice between working through menstrual symptoms or taking sick days or vacation time.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">A 2017 survey of 32,748 women in the Netherlands</span> <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/6/e026186.full.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">published in the British Medical Journal</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">found that 14% had taken time off from work or school during their periods. Others said they had showed up even when they were in pain, struggling to work while enduring their symptoms, leading to what researchers estimated was an</span> average of 8.9 days of lost productivity per woman <span style="font-weight: 400;">each year.</span></p> <h2><b>The debate over period leave</b></h2> <p>The clash between workplace demands and menstrual symptoms is what spurred Bex Baxter to begin crafting one of the earliest menstrual leave policies at a Western employer in 2016, while she was a director at the U.K. social enterprise Coexist. “I saw a member of staff bent double, white as a sheet, clearly in a lot of pain, over reception and still serving customers,” says Baxter. In her colleague’s despair she saw a reflection of herself; Baxter has long suffered debilitating periods that leave her collapsing nearly every month when they start.</p> <p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://time.com/4694568/meghan-markle-period-stigma/"><em>Meghan Markle: How Periods Affect Potential</em></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The idea of <a href="https://time.com/4245067/period-leave/">giving women at Coexist</a> up to one paid day of menstrual leave a month catapulted the then 31-person firm into the</span> public <span style="font-weight: 400;">spotlight. “There was a huge backlash,” says Baxter. “One comment that sticks in the mind is: ‘You’re putting feminism back by 100 years by doing this.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ferocity of the debate shocked her. “The toxicity came from women, not the men,” she says. “Women that were fearful that they had fought to be equal to men, not seen as weak, and didn’t want this drawing attention to a weakness within them and creating a stigma so that they couldn’t get promotions.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While a global conversation swirled about whether Coexist’s policy was helping or hindering its female employees, the idea appeared to be paying off internally. Managers reported increased commitment, resilience and productivity, says Baxter, who continues to consult with companies and administrations interested in implementing menstrual leave. Data suggested that the benefits of the policy extended beyond the 24 women at Coexist, with</span> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329915271_Menstruation_humanistic_management_The_development_and_implementation_of_a_menstrual_workplace_policy" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">men at the organization viewing it</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">as part of a broader culture of inclusion that allowed them to also adjust the working day to their bodies if necessary.</span></p> <p>A 2016 <a href="https://time.com/4714991/italy-lawmakers-paid-menstrual-leave/">proposal by four Italian lawmakers</a> offering up to three days of paid menstrual leave per month failed to advance in parliament, to the relief of some who worried that it would make employers more reluctant to hire women in a country that already has one of <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/european-semester_thematic-factsheet_labour-force-participation-women_en_0.pdf" target="_blank">Europe’s lowest rates of women in the workforce.</a> “Most people—including myself—thought this could put women at risk of more discrimination,” says Daniela Piazzalunga, an assistant professor in economics at the University of Trento.</p> <h2>Menstrual leave’s complicated history</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The idea of a formal menstrual leave originated nearly a century ago in Soviet Russia</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">when</span> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/152770" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">menstruating</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">women were released from paid labor</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in a bid to protect their reproductive health in the 1920s and ’30s. The idea gained traction with labor unions in Japan in the late 1920s, eventually becoming enshrined in the country’s law in 1947.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The thinking behind the move in Japan partly stemmed from theories regarding women’s fertility, with unions warning that long hours and poor sanitary conditions could harm their capacity to bear children, says Izumi Nakayama, an academic at the University of Hong Kong</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">who has extensively studied Japan’s menstrual leave program</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Today the application of menstrual leave policy varies across Japan, with decisions about the amount of time allowed and whether it is paid often left to collective negotiations with unions and employers’ discretion. There is little evidence about whether it has actually been used in recent decades.</span> A 2014 government study found that less than 0.9% of the surveyed women in workplaces that have a menstrual leave policy had requested it, citing reasons such as embarrassment or a lack of understanding from male superiors. “In 2021, it’s much less likely for women, especially highly educated white collar workers to take menstruation leave.”</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even so, the Japanese precedent has proliferated a cluster of similar policies across East Asia—from South Korea to Taiwan and several provinces in China—rooted in the idea of women’s fragility during menstruation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">In India, food delivery startup</span> <a href="https://www.zomato.com/blog/period-leaves" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Zomato</a> <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">last year began offering employees up to 10 days of paid menstrual leave a year, joining a handful of private companies in the country that have sought to challenge India’s firmly-entrenched taboos around menstruation. A company spokesperson said that since the policy was launched in August 2020, it has been used by 621 employees who have taken more than 2,000 days of leave.</span></p> <p><strong>Read more:</strong> <em><a href="https://time.com/4246662/period-policies-at-work/">A History of How Employers Have Addressed Women’s Periods</a></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While menstrual leave has been embraced by employers around the world, the idea has gained little traction in the U.S. A 2017</span> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31385733/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">survey of 600 Americans</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">published in the journal Health Care for Women International found that nearly half of respondents thought the impact of menstrual leave would be negative. Some cited concerns that the policy would be unfair to people who don’t menstruate or that the leave would be abused. Others saw the policy as unnecessary, saying that employees should use sick days if needed</span><b>.</b> In some cases that may mean taking unpaid leave. The U.S. currently has no federal requirements for paid sick leave. A 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey suggested 24% of workers in the US do not have access to paid sick leave.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Months after menstrual leave policies began making inroads in Spain, the push is now on to improve the policy and expand it to the private sector, particularly sectors like retail, which tend to employ more women. In Girona, the Intersindical-CSC union had initially envisioned 16 hours of leave per month</span> for municipal workers <span style="font-weight: 400;">but had scaled back their demand during negotiations with the city, says Ester Rocabayera who heads the union’s feminism secretariat. “It’s an important step forward but the policy leaves many women in the margins,” she adds, citing single parents who aren’t able to make up time used due to childcare constraints as an example.</span></p> <p>So far, however, amendments to the policy, such as dropping the requirement for workers to offset their paid leave with overtime, have proved to be a tough sell, says Rocabayera. “And that reveals the limits of employers’ supposed commitment to feminism—we can have menstrual leave but the onus is on us to put that time back into the system.”</p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/fAB9xVgkIiE" width="1" />

Employers Are Starting to Adopt ‘Menstrual Leave’ Policies. Could It Backfire?

As a municipal employee of five years in the Catalan city of Girona, Spain Miriam Requena has an array of benefits: sick leave, per...

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Why Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Peace Prize Matters for Russia’s Journalists

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105332"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105332/dmitry-muratov-nobel-peace-prize/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was named alongside Maria Ressa as a Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday in recognition of his efforts to defend freedom of expression.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov has less of an international profile than Filipino journalist Ressa,</span> <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">who was one of the “Guardians” of the free press TIME named as Person of the Year in 2018</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, but journalists and critics of the Russian government have widely welcomed his selection.</span></p> <h2>Who is Dmitry Muratov?</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov is the founder and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last big newspapers to regularly criticize President Vladimir Putin, and which has reported extensively on government corruption in the country.</span><br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The newspaper’s fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media,” the Nobel Committee said in a</span> <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2021/press-release/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">statement</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">announcing the award Friday.</span></p> <p><strong><b>Read more:</b> <a href="https://time.com/5605456/russian-journalist-ivan-golunov-arrest/"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">‘He Had Powerful Enemies.’ Russian Journalist Ivan Golunov Has Been Released, But Media in Russia Still Can’t Work Freely</span></i></a></strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov and his team were recognized for the personal risk they have taken to push back against Putin’s attacks on press freedom in Russia. Six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists have been killed in the line of duty, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. One, Anna Politkovskaya, was assassinated 15 years ago to the day on Thursday.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Russia is ranked 150th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Despite the killings and threats, editor-in-chief Muratov has refused to abandon the newspaper’s independent policy,” the Nobel committee said. “He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism.” Muratov <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-editor-muratov-dedicates-nobel-prize-staff-murdered-their-work-2021-10-08/" target="_blank">dedicated</a> his win to the murdered journalists on Friday.</span></p> <h2>How have Russian journalists reacted?</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While Muratov’s recognition was widely welcomed, some warned that it would not be enough to protect journalists.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ilya Azar, a special correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, told TIME he was proud of Muratov, his boss, for receiving the award. The newspaper “is making a great contribution in the fight for freedom of speech and human rights in Russia,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“But if somebody sees this Nobel prize to Muratov as a strong signal to Putin from the West to stop prosecutions in Russia, then they are wrong,” Azar added. “If that was the idea, then the Nobel Committee should have given the prize to</span> <a href="https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096084/alexei-navalny/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alexei Navalny</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which is what many activists in Russia thought would be a powerful move.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Navalny is Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and was the victim of an assassination attempt linked to the Kremlin in 2020. In February, he was sentenced to a lengthy jail term for supposedly violating his probation, in a move seen by most international observers as an act of state intimidation. He was one of the oddsmakers’ favorites to win the prestigious accolade.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alexandrina Elagina, a Russian journalist who was</span> <a href="https://cpj.org/2016/03/attackers-beat-group-of-journalists-covering-human/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">attacked</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in 2016 by a group of masked men while reporting in the Caucasus area of Russia, echoed the sentiment. “It is a very difficult time to be an editor-in-chief [in Russia] today,” said Elagina, who is managing editor of the Russian-language news website Polit.ru. “Muratov deserves respect.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“But many people in Russia believe Alexei Navalny deserves to have won,” she added.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a news conference on Friday, Muratov even</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/antontroian/status/1446480898669563906" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">that he would have voted for <a href="https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6096084/alexei-navalny/">Navalny</a> to win the prize, had he been on the committee that decides the award.</span></p> <p><strong>Read more:</strong> <em><a href="https://time.com/5933718/alexey-navalny-putin-protests/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alexey Navalny Is Succeeding Where Putin’s Other Opponents Have Failed. Why?</span></a></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Kremlin spokesperson congratulated Muratov for his win on Friday, calling him “brave,” in a comment denounced by some social media users as cynical given the government’s responsibility for the difficult climate for journalists.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov said at the news conference he had asked Kremlin officials whether he would be declared a foreign agent now that he had won the prize—a reference to the Kremlin labelling 47 media outlets and about 10 journalists as</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/11/putins-crackdown-how-russias-journalists-became-foreign-agents" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" target="_blank">foreign agents</a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in a move criticized by press freedom observers worldwide.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Azar said while Muratov’s recognition by the Nobel Committee was well-deserved, it reminded him of the phrase “we are deeply concerned,” which he said is often used by Western politicians who frequently condemn the Kremlin but take no real action. “We often laugh about this phrase in Russia,” Azar said.</span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/tg3WhhTL1dg" width="1" />

Why Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Peace Prize Matters for Russia’s Journalists

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was named alongside Maria Ressa as a Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday in recognition of his eff...

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The Nobel Committee Sent a Message That Freedom of the Press Is Essential for Peace

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105344"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105344/nobel-peace-prize-press-freedom-maria-ressa-dmitry-muratov/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been</span> <a href="https://time.com/6105229/nobel-peace-prize-2021-maria-ressa-dmitry-muratov/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">awarded</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to two fighters for a free press: Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited their fight for freedom of expression, stressing that it is vital in promoting peace.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee.</span></p> <p>The fact that the Nobel committee honored two journalists — Ressa, the CEO of Filipino news site Rappler, and Muratov, the former editor of independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta — seems intended to underscore <span style="font-weight: 400;">the necessity of freedom of expression to functioning democracies, i</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">n a year marked by increased weaponization of social media and attacks on journalists pursuing truth.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF)</span> <a href="https://rsf.org/en/2021-world-press-freedom-index-journalism-vaccine-against-disinformation-blocked-more-130-countries" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2021 World Press Freedom Index</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the situation for press freedom is “difficult or very serious” in 73% of the 180 countries it evaluates, and “good or satisfactory” in only 27%.</span><br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Earlier this year, literary and human rights organization PEN America</span> <a href="https://time.com/6073516/digital-censorship-biden-administration/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">warned</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">that repressive governments are ramping up efforts to censor, surveil, and punish dissenters under the guise of “digital sovereignty.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Examples include</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">the Indian government forcing Twitter and Facebook in April to remove posts critical of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Nigerian government banning Twitter in June after the platform removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari which</span> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/2/twitter-removes-nigerian-presidents-abusive-civil-war-post" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">critics</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">say revived civil war sentiments.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a phone interview, Director of International Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, Rebecca Vincent, said she thought the Committee’s decision to award journalists fighting for press freedoms was “strategic.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The global situation for press freedom is more challenging than ever before,” she said. “The Committee recognized what we at Reporters Without Borders believe, which is that safeguarding of free expression is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”</span></p> <figure class="inline-longform_xlarge alignnone"><img alt="Supporters Of Alexei Navalny Gather In Berlin, Demand His Release From Russian Prison" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?w=1024&w=1024" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg 1024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=560,374 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=46,31 46w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alexei-navalny.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Omer Messinger—Getty Images</span><span class="caption">Some 2500 supporters of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny march in protest to demand his release from prison in Moscow on Jan. 23, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.</span></figcaption> </figure> <h2>Press freedom under threat in Philippines and Russia</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Philippines</span> <a href="https://rsf.org/en/philippines" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ranks</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">138 out of 180 countries in the RSF’s global index. Since winning the presidency in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has moved the country further towards authoritarianism, imposing policies of fear and repression.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He immediately made known his intention to stifle free expression in an open threat to journalists: “Just because you’re a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a bitch,” he said. “Freedom of expression cannot help you if you have done something wrong.” Four journalists were killed in 2020, and reporters critical of Duterte’s bloodthirsty “war on drugs” have been pressured, harassed and intimidated.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">At the height of the pandemic in summer 2020, the Philippine Congress</span> <a href="https://rsf.org/en/philippines" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">refused</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to renew the</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">franchise of the country’s biggest TV network, ABS-CBN.</span></p> <p><b>Read more:</b> <a href="https://time.com/5901383/harry-maria-ressa-renee-diresta/"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">‘What Will You Sacrifice for the Truth?’ Maria Ressa Discusses Disinformation and Social Platforms With Prince Harry and Renée DiResta</span></i></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Facebook has become the</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/18/facebook-and-fear-in-manila-maria-ressas-fight-for-facts" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">battleground</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">for public disinformation campaigns. In the Philippines,</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Facebook’s “Free Basics” program allows mobile phone users to access the platform and the internet for free, making the social media giant the go-to source for news in the country—</span><a href="https://napoleoncat.com/stats/facebook-users-in-philippines/2021/02/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">78%</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">of the country’s population use Facebook.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Duterte’s regime has taken advantage of this, using state-controlled fake accounts to spread untruths and harass vocal critics.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Russia</span> <a href="https://rsf.org/en/russia" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ranks</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">even lower down the RSF Index: 150 out of 180 countries. Over the past decade, the Kremlin has sought to control online information by censoring or removing content and blocking mobile Internet access. In 2019, Russia introduced</span> <a href="https://time.com/5951834/russia-control-internet/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">controversial technology</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to limit traffic to Twitter and a year later passed a law to</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-internet-lawmakers-fines/russian-lawmakers-back-hefty-fines-for-websites-that-fail-to-remove-banned-content-idUSKBN28X0ZW" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">increase fines</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">on internet platforms for failing to remove information the state considers unsuitable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny—who was one of oddsmakers’</span> <a href="https://time.com/6103763/nobel-peace-prize-2021-favorites/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">favorites</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to win the Peace Prize—was detained by authorities in January, journalists covering protests against his arrest have been subjected to harassment, fines and even violence. The Kremlin is aiming towards a “sovereign internet,” whereby media or information which challenges the regime is banned and dissenting journalists are branded “foreign agents.” State-controlled media feeds propaganda to Russian civilians and trumped up charges are used to imprison reporters and bloggers.</span></p> <figure class="inline-longform_xlarge alignnone"><img alt="Philippine Journalist Maria Ressa Face Libel Verdict" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?w=1024&w=1024" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg 1024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=560,374 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=46,31 46w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maria-ressa-cyber-libel.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Ezra Acayan—Getty Images</span><span class="caption">Maria Ressa, editor and CEO of Rappler, speaks to reporters after being convicted for cyber libel at a regional trial court on June 15, 2020 in Manila, Philippines.</span></figcaption> </figure> <h2>What to know about Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Maria Ressa was named TIME’s Person of the Year 2018 as part of</span> <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Guardians and the War on Truth</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a group of journalists fighting for press freedoms around the world. The Filipino-American was a CNN bureau chief before setting up an online news outlet,</span> <a href="https://www.rappler.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rappler</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, with three other women in 2012.</span></p> <p><b>Read More:</b> <a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2018-the-guardians/"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Time Person of the Year 2018: The Guardians and the War on Truth</span></i></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rappler became known for accurate, challenging reporting chronicling Duterte’s “war on drugs” and extrajudicial killings that have left</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/tag/philippines-war-drugs" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">over 12,000 dead</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Duterte’s government refuses to accredit Rappler to cover it and is attempting to silence the platform using what RSF calls “</span><a href="https://rsf.org/en/philippines" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">judicial harassment</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.” Both the site and its founder face multiple criminal charges, including cyber libel—if found guilty, Ressa faces up to six years in prison.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2016, after months of studying data and traffic on the platform, Ressa’s team uncovered a network of state-controlled fake accounts spreading fake news on Facebook. She unsuccessfully attempted to lobby the social media giant into action to regulate the content, and herself became the victim of a vicious harassment campaign on the platform, with government supporting accounts threatening violence and spreading the hashtag, #UnfollowRappler.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The other joint winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Duratov is one of the founders of the independent Russian newspaper</span> <a href="https://novayagazeta.ru/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Novaya Gazeta</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in 1993. “Novaya Gazeta is the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power,” the Nobel committee said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The newspaper’s critical stance towards the Putin regime has made its reporters targets of the Kremlin—six of its reporters have been killed in the paper’s nearly two decade history. One of the assassinated reporters, Anna Politkovskaya, was killed 15 years ago yesterday. She gained international recognition for her coverage of Chechnya and the North Caucasus.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov is the first Russian to win the Nobel peace prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, who himself helped set up Novaya Gazeta</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">with the prize money.</span></p> <figure class="inline-longform_xlarge alignnone"><img alt="Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov wins Nobel Peace Prize 2021" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?w=1024&w=1024" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg 1024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=300,192 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=768,491 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=600,384 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=550,352 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=280,179 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=560,358 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=419,268 419w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=838,536 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=407,260 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=814,521 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=190,122 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=380,243 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=263,168 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=526,336 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=61,39 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=640,409 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=760,486 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=700,448 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=1000,640 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=48,31 48w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=840,537 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=1012,647 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=320,205 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=730,467 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=192,123 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/dmitry-muratov-1.jpg?resize=391,250 391w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Sergei Bobylev—TASS/Getty Images</span><span class="caption">Novaya Gazeta newspaper editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov talks to the media after winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 on Oct. 8 2021.</span></figcaption> </figure> <h2><b>How the world reacted to their win</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=419698589726430" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">post</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">on Rappler’s Facebook page following her Nobel win, Ressa repeated her career-long mantra for journalists in the Philippines to “hold the line.” In another</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm3UvvyD2Xc" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">interview</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, she said that the Committee’s choice to recognize journalists under siege was proof that</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“a world without facts means a world without truth and without trust”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Muratov dedicated his award to the six murdered journalists whose pictures hang in Novaya Gazeta’s Moscow office. “We will use this award to fight for Russian journalism, which they’re now trying to repress,” he</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-editor-muratov-dedicates-nobel-prize-staff-murdered-their-work-2021-10-08/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Podyom, a Russian news website.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, a member of Ressa’s legal team, said, “I am so proud of my client and friend. She has sacrificed her own freedom for the rights of journalists all over the world. I hope the Philippine authorities will now stop persecuting her and other journalists, and that this prize helps to protect the press around the world.”</span></p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1446467500871389223"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">I'm so thrilled that journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/mariaressa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">@MariaRessa</a> has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.</p> <p>If you’re new to her work, listen to our conversation from February about how she’s taken on the Duterte regime and disinformation on Facebook—armed only with the truth. <a href="https://t.co/b2GIAPSqp6" target="_blank">https://t.co/b2GIAPSqp6</a></p> <p>— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1446467500871389223?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 8, 2021</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vincent of RSF hopes that winning the Nobel Peace Prize will afford the two journalists some level of protection. “The international community is very much watching what’s happening, and know there would be consequences if anything happened to these journalists.”</span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/RpQ4ChsZdLU" width="1" />

The Nobel Committee Sent a Message That Freedom of the Press Is Essential for Peace

The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two fighters for a free press: Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov o...

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Why Maria Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize Win Came at a Crucial Time for Journalists in the Philippines

<br /> <br /> <aside class="right-rail__container right-rail__container--ad"> <div class="right-rail__ad__wrapper right-rail__module"> <div class="right-rail__ad" id="right-rail__ad-6105339"></div> </div> <br /> <div class="OUTBRAIN right-rail__outbrain right-rail__module" data-src="https://time.com/6105339/maria-ressa-nobel-peace-prize-philippines/" data-widget-id="SB_2" data-ob-template="timemag"></div> </aside> <p>Journalists in the Philippines, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters, celebrated the crusading Filipino journalist Maria Ressa after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her its Peace Prize on Friday.</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ressa, CEO and co-founder of online news organization Rappler, became the first</span> <a href="https://time.com/6105229/nobel-peace-prize-2021-maria-ressa-dmitry-muratov/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Filipino individual Nobel laureate</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. She and Russia’s Dmitry Muratov were selected among 329 candidates, with the selection committee saying that the two recipients represent journalists who stand up in the midst of “increasingly adverse conditions” against them.</span></p> <p>The 58-year-old award-winning journalist was convicted of cyber libel last year and is facing several legal challenges as a result of her work. Ressa says the cases are politically motivated—a result of Rappler’s tough reporting on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war<br /> [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) lauded Ressa for upholding press freedom.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“We hope this award will shine more light on those who put the spotlight on the truth at a time when basic freedoms and democracy are under attack,” the NUJP statement said.</span></p> <p>The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines said her win is a victory for press freedom advocates. “We hope that Ressa’s win drives international attention to the plight of the Philippines’ local media workers, and sends a signal that a free, unstifled and critical press is necessary for a healthy democracy,” it said in a tweeted statement.</p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/FOCAP2020/status/1446434133698224130"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">FOCAP Statement (thread)</p> <p>The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines congratulates journalist Maria Ressa on being the first Filipino to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Her win is a victory for press freedom advocates across the Philippines…</p> <p>— FOCAP (@FOCAP2020) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOCAP2020/status/1446434133698224130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 8, 2021</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lawmakers and government officials critical of Duterte have congratulated Ressa too. Vice President Leni Robredo, a key opposition figure who previously called</span> <a href="https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/6/15/Rappler-Maria-Ressa-cyberlibel-conviction-Vice-President-Leni-Robredo.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ressa’s conviction for online libel</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">as “weaponizing law against media,” took to Twitter to congratulate the Nobel laureate.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is a recognition and affirmation of your tireless efforts to hold the line for truth and accountability,” Robredo said.</span></p> <div class="time-embed time-embed__twitter" data-provider="twitter" data-url="https://twitter.com/lenirobredo/status/1446414614233632770"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Congratulations to <a href="https://twitter.com/mariaressa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">@mariaressa</a> for being awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize! This is a recognition and affirmation of your tireless efforts to hold the line for truth and accountability. I applaud your courage. Mabuhay ka! <a href="https://t.co/o5RQXoXdG6" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/o5RQXoXdG6</a></p> <p>— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) <a href="https://twitter.com/lenirobredo/status/1446414614233632770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 8, 2021</a></p> </blockquote> </div> <figure class="inline-portrait_small_2x alignnone"><img alt="A wake for murdered journalists at the Collado Funeral Home in General Santos City, Mindanao, in 2009." loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?w=560&w=560" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg 2400w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1100,733 1100w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=560,373 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1620,1080 1620w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1680,1120 1680w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1500,1000 1500w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1232,821 1232w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1850,1234 1850w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1520,1013 1520w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=47,31 47w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=2024,1349 2024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/philippines-journalist-massacre-2009-funerals.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Gerhard Joren—LightRocket/Getty Images</span><span class="caption">A wake for murdered journalists at the Collado Funeral Home in General Santos City, Mindanao, in 2009.</span></figcaption> </figure> <h2>The price of press freedom in the Philippines</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Philippines is a harsh battleground for the press. It ranks 138th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index by France-based organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The biggest</span> <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1943191,00.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">massacre involving media workers</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in the world ever recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) happened in the southern part of the Philippines in 2009. The 32 journalists who died there are among the 89 media-related killings tallied in the country since 1992.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This dire situation only worsened when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. The RSF named Duterte as one of the world’s “predators of press freedom,” especially since his administration has gone after local media outlets that covered his deadly drug war. Among these organizations is online news organization Rappler, which has Ressa at the helm.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She also fought against disinformation in a country where</span> almost <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/490518/share-of-the-philippines-internet-users-using-facebook/" target="_blank">97% of its Internet users are on Facebook</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Duterte had used the platform to rally support for his war against illegal drugs in the Philippines, which has led to the controversial deaths of 12,000 Filipinos according to the Human Rights Watch. Ressa once said the spread of fake news</span> <a href="https://time.com/5933989/facebook-oversight-regulating-social-media/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has put democracies at risk</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and urged lawmakers to clamp down on purveyors of disinformation while convincing journalists to do better reporting to stop it from spreading.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Duterte spat verbal attacks at Rappler and Ressa, his government lodged a string of legal cases against them—ranging from breach of foreign ownership rules in the Philippines, to alleged tax violations. Critics have viewed these actions as harassment and political intimidation for Rappler’s critical coverage of the Duterte administration, which caused a chilling effect on media workers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ressa’s plight in a country that was once known for being a champion of press freedom in Asia caught international attention — including in 2018, when TIME named her among</span> <a href="https://time.com/5793800/maria-ressa-the-guardians-100-women-of-the-year/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the “Guardians” of press freedom</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">recognized as Person of the Year.</span></p> <figure class="inline-portrait_small_2x alignnone"><img alt="President Duterte Moves To Shut The Philippines' Leading Television Network" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" src="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?w=560&w=560" srcset="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg 2400w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=550,367 550w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1100,733 1100w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=280,187 280w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=560,373 560w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=405,270 405w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=838,559 838w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=810,540 810w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1620,1080 1620w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=840,560 840w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1680,1120 1680w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=407,271 407w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=814,542 814w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1500,1000 1500w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=190,127 190w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=380,253 380w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=263,175 263w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=526,351 526w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=61,41 61w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=616,411 616w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1232,821 1232w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=321,214 321w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=642,428 642w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=925,617 925w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1850,1234 1850w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=640,427 640w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=760,507 760w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1520,1013 1520w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=700,467 700w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1000,667 1000w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=47,31 47w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=1012,675 1012w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=2024,1349 2024w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=320,213 320w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=730,487 730w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=345,230 345w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=270,180 270w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=192,128 192w, https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABS-CBN-News-philippines.jpg?resize=375,250 375w" /> <figcaption class="image-caption"><span class="credit">Ezra Acayan—Getty Images</span><span class="caption">Reporters and editors in the newsroom of ABS-CBN News in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on Feb. 11, 2020.</span></figcaption> </figure> <h2>‘Inspiring momentum in the right direction’</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The win came at an important time, says political observer Richard Heydarian. With Ressa amassing international support, Heydarian believes that the prize will give greater hope to government opposition ahead of the May 2022 presidential elections.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think now that we’re heading into a new election and there’s a hope of change, of good change, this Nobel Peace Prize will go some way in inspiring that momentum in the right direction,” Heydarian tells TIME.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But public sentiment might be different. Jonathan de Santos, NUJP’s chairperson, says Ressa’s win may not spur much change on the ground since Duterte’s satisfaction rating</span> <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/so-what-if-duterte-may-cap-term-as-philippines-most-popular-president" target="_blank">stayed above 70% in recent local polls</a>—higher than previous Philippine leaders<span style="font-weight: 400;">. He also has a history of verbally lashing out at international bodies that raise questions about his governance, like the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, so his allies are expected to do the same.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Duterte government has previously claimed that cases filed against Ressa and Rappler are not related to press freedom, and de Santos believes it will continue to do so. But a Nobel Prize can help highlight how bad the situation is on the ground.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Unfortunately, the prize will not make the cases that she is facing go away,” de Santos tells TIME. “But it could prompt more journalists in the Philippines and abroad to work together and protect each other from threats against press freedom and against the profession.”</span></p> <img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/world/~4/glw7tr9u4xM" width="1" />

Why Maria Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize Win Came at a Crucial Time for Journalists in the Philippines

Journalists in the Philippines, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters, celebrated the crusading Filipino j...

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