The 1958 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

CITATION for Robert Dick and Mochtar Lubis

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
31 August 1959, Manila, Philippines

R. McCULLOCH DICK, as founder and publisher of a journal that has recently marked its 50th anniversary, has played a pioneering role in establishing and maintaining the tradition of press freedom in the Philippines.
The Philippines Free Press has, from its beginning, lived up to its name. The staff has been encouraged to explore every event of significance—regardless of the influence of agencies or personalities that may have been affected. Despite repeated attempts to curtail publication of his journal, Mr. DICK has not wavered in his determination to give to the people of the Philippines a free press.

His weekly magazine has brought to public attention the unsung work of good citizens, prominent and unknown alike, as well as abuses that have not otherwise been reported. It has been, in a sense, a public prosecutor in the cause of fair elections, rule by law and morality in government service.
Consistent with the spirit of the late Ramon Magsaysay, the Free Press has taken up the defense of victims of injustice. And it attends to the concerns of the people who live in the barrios.

MOCHTAR LUBIS is today waging in Indonesia the battle for freedom of the press that R. McCULLOCH DICK has helped to win in the Philippines.

As neither he nor Mrs. Lubis could be present, he has requested that Carlos Nivera, a former Filipino editor, should represent him.

MOCHTAR LUBIS, as editor-in-chief, and part-owner of the Indonesia Raya, has fought against government corruption, the violation of civil liberties by the military and against the inroads of totalitarianism in his country. Since December 1956, he has chosen incarceration over compromise in the interest of enhancing rather than diminishing the area of press freedom in Indonesia.

At a time when this basic freedom is being threatened in many parts of the world, his example gives strength to others who share the belief that free speech and a free press are essential if government is to reflect the will of the people.

In electing to divide the first Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature equally between R. McCULLOCH DICK and MOCHTAR LUBIS, the Board of Trustees recognizes the courageous and constructive contribution each has made in the profession of journalism as a power for the public good.