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NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

In Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It,’ we are told about a jester that we meet in the forest. He is a fool who “speaks his mind” and, by so doing, he helps “to cleanse the foul body of the infected world.” The medieval-licenced court jester is, to my mind, the predecessor of the modern journalist, whose task is not only to provide us with welldocumented news but to denounce abuses and corruption in those countries where democracy is an illusion. For the court jester, exposing kings and princes through humour was a thankless occupation because he was very often whipped, but the plight of the modern investigative reporter is by no means less dangerous. According to the Committee To Protect Journalists , “a record number of reporters were imprisoned globally by authoritarian nations in 2020” and this news hits close to home in Argentina, mainly when we remember photographer José Luis Cabezas was kidnapped and killed in 1998. Besides, the Argentine media outlets denouncing all sorts of malpractice by the current administration have been systematically harassed. It is therefore no wonder that those in favour of a free press welcome the news that journalists Maria Ressa from the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov from Russia have been awarded the Nobel Prize for “their fight to defend freedom of expression.”

Adrian Insaubralde, Santa Fe

BUENOS AIRES TIMES

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2021-10-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://kioscoperfil.pressreader.com/article/283360475280307

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