The United Nations called on the Philippines to allow Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa to travel to Norway next month to receive the award.
Ressa, the first Filipino Nobel laureate, shared the Peace Prize with Russian investigative journalist Dmitry Muratov, a move widely seen as an endorsement of free speech rights, which are under pressure around the world.
Ressa has requested government approval to travel to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said the United Nations is “very concerned” about the travel restrictions imposed on Ressa by the government.
“We urge the Philippine government to immediately lift any restrictions and allow her to travel to Oslo,” Dujarric told reporters in New York.
Ressa’s license to the news site, Rappler, was suspended and she faced a lawsuit for various reasons.
Supporters say she has come under their scrutiny of government policies, including a bloody war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Philippines’ ranking on the 2021 World Press Freedom Index has dropped two notches to 138 out of 180 countries, and the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines seventh in the world on its impunity index, which tracks the deaths of journalists. media whose killers are released.
The government denies it pursues the journalist and says any problems faced by the organizations are legal, not political. Says he believes in freedom of expression.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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