Russian editor Muratov dedicates Nobel prize to staff killed for their work.
Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov reacts as he meets journalists in Moscow, Russia October 8, 2021
- Russian editor says prize is for slain journalists
- Says will leverage it to help defend Russian journalists
- Says Russian journalism is under pressure
- Plans to share prize money with other media
Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov dedicated the Nobel Peace Prize he won on Friday to six of his paper's journalists murdered for their work, and said he would try to use the award to help defend reporters under pressure.
"Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natasha Estemirova - these are the people who have today won the Nobel Prize," Muratov said, reciting the names of the slain staff journalists or contributors whose portraits hang in its headquarters.
He said he felt the Nobel prize committee wanted to recognise their achievements but had chosen him instead because it did not hand out awards posthumously.
Muratov was awarded the Nobel Prize on Friday along with Maria Ressa, a journalist from the Philippines, in what the committee called an endorsement of free speech rights in jeopardy around the world.
Referring to a law that forces some journalists to register as foreign agents, Muratov told media outside his newspaper's central Moscow offices: "I don't know how this will affect the censorship that is being imposed.
"...But I can say one thing for sure: we will sit down on Monday and have a think about how to divide this prize."
Part of his winnings would be used to support unspecified independent media, he said.
Muratov also said he would have given the Nobel prize to Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic critic, who was jailed this year over parole violations he said were trumped up to thwart his political ambitions.
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