UN urges the Philippines to let Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa travel to Norway

Journalist Maria Ressa is the first Nobel laureate from the Philippines

The UN has urged the Philippines to allow Filipino Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa to travel to Norway next month to receive her award, the Straits Times writes. 

She is currently on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case but after her Nobel prize Win in October she has requested government approval to travel to Oslo for the ceremony on 10 December.

Speaking on the matter, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the UN was “very concerned” about travel restrictions placed on Maria Ressa by the government of the Philippines.

“We urge the government of the Philippines to immediately withdraw any such restrictions and allow her to travel to Oslo,” Stephanie Dujarric told media in New York.

According to Maria Ressa supporters, the Filipino journalist has been targeted for her scrutiny of government policies, including a bloody war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Philippines ranks 138 out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index while the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines seventh in the world in its impunity index, which tracks deaths of media members whose killers go free.

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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