The daughter of the Russian journalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize told us why the big win is really an honor for their dad's 'dead colleagues'

• The daughter of Dmitry Muratov, one of the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, is studying to be a journalist at New York University.
• Finley Muratova, 21, sees the honor as a win for the Russian newspaper their father leads, as well as for the journalists killed protecting the freedom of the press.

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov phoned his daughter Finley Muratova last Friday after he'd won the Nobel Peace Prize - but because Muratova is a college student in New York, the call reached them at 6 a.m while they were still in bed.

"I got scared that something bad must have happened," Muratova, 21, told Insider. "And then he told me the news, and I was quite dumbfounded in a good way."

Muratova is used to feeling dread when family calls from Russia. Their dad may be one of the biggest names in the world of reporting after co-winning the Peace Prize with Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, but he also leads a newsroom in a country where watchdog groups say 23 journalists have been killed in the last 10 years.

This harsh reality has been part of Muratova's life since they were a child, when their dad would share tales from the life of a slain reporter instead of bedtime stories. And now as a journalist in training completing their last year of school at New York University, Muratova said that the sacrifices made by champions of free speech are what drove them to follow in their father's footsteps.

"I just always knew that I wanted to be a journalist, because of my dad and because of the people that I grew up around," they said in a Zoom interview with Insider.

As a child, Muratova would run down the hallways of Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper that Muratov co-founded in 1993 (he currently serves as its editor-in-chief). The Nobel Committee described the outlet as "the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power."

One of its most influential staffers was Anna Politkovskaya, an internationally renowned investigative reporter who spoke out against human-rights abuses. She was shot and killed in her Moscow apartment building in 2006.

"When Anna was murdered, life changed a lot," said Muratova, who was 6 years old at the time. "I don't think it was ever particularly safe for my father or his colleagues. But it felt like life changed a lot - for me at least."

Though Muratova doesn't remember their childhood interactions with Politkovskaya, they said the slain reporter has been a major influence in their career as a burgeoning reporter.

Muratova has written about Politkovskaya for The Nation, and they've translated the subtitles in a documentary released by Novaya Gazeta on Oct. 6, a day before the statute of limitations on the murder's investigation was set to expire. (The Nobel Committee announced the Peace Prize on Oct. 8.)

"I think that for a solid while, I felt like I was losing hope in journalism or human-rights defenses, or in goodness, for that matter," Muratova said. "And the way she never gave up was something that always made me feel like there has to be a reason to not give up. And I think that that's why writing about her was the path I took."

In their own work as a journalist in the U.S., Muratova reports on Title IX cases and investigates the ways that the Department of Education has failed survivors of sexual violence.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sexual discrimination, including sexual harassment and campus violence, at educational institutions that receive federal funding.

Muratova said they found their current calling when NYU rehired a professor it had previously suspended after finding she had sexually harassed a student. Muratova, who describes themselves as someone who rarely gets angry, was furious.

As a writer for Washington Square News, the independent student-run newspaper at NYU, Muratova wrote an opinion piece that revealed that they had been sexually assaulted as a teenager.

Going public with their experience was not Muratova's original intent for the piece, but the admission allowed others to reach out to them directly.

"I started receiving a cascade of emails from people who went for Title IX at NYU [and felt] let down by the school, either by incompetence or by the school's self-preservation instinct," Muratova said. "My father taught me the sheer importance of being humane and available to people who might need me."

The show of support pushed them to dig deeper into the issue, and it's just one of many topics they hope to continue covering after graduating this coming spring.

"I hope I can do justice to the people who choose to trust me with their stories," Muratova said. "I hope I have a strong enough moral compass that I can keep holding on to that hope no matter where I go."

For now, Muratova is taking time to reflect on their dad's historic win, which they're quick to emphasize is really a win for the newsroom he runs. (Muratov has pledged to donate the Nobel's cash winnings to charities and special causes, including a prize named after Politkovskaya.)

Both Muratova and their dad have said the Nobel is a symbolic honor for murdered reporters like Politkovskaya.

"It's an award handed to his dead colleagues. And I know that he said that, but I also solemnly believe that I don't think it's just his by any means," Muratova said. "I hope that it shows the international community that there's a need to pay attention to what's happening to the free media in Russia. So for now, I would say fingers crossed that it brings attention to the issue. And then we'll see where we move from there."