Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa, journalists whose work has angered the rulers of the Philippines and Russia, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, an award the committee said was an endorsement of free speech rights under threat worldwide.

The two were awarded “for their courageous fight for freedom of expression” in their countries, Chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told a news conference.

“At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions,” she added.

“Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda.”

Muratov is editor-in-chief of Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has defied the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin with probes into wrongdoing and corruption, and extensively covered the conflict in Ukraine.

When Reuters interviewed him six years ago, his office was across the hall from portraits of six Novaya Gazeta journalists killed since 2001, including Anna Politkovskaya, known for her fearless reporting on Russia’s wars in Chechnya, who was shot dead in her stairwell on Putin’s birthday in 2006.

Muratov, 59, is the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — who himself helped set up Novaya Gazeta with the money he received from winning the award in 1990.

Ressa, 58, is the first Nobel Peace laureate from the Philippines. She heads Rappler, a digital media company which she co-founded in 2012, and which has grown prominent through investigative reporting, including into large scale killings during a police campaign against drugs.

“Fighting a government is crazy: I didn’t set out to do it, but it became necessary in order to do my job,” she wrote in the Financial Times in December.

“I was arrested for being a journalist — for publishing truthful articles unpalatable to those in power — but this has only served to unshackle me, to help me understand what was happening and to chart the path ahead.”