A top aide to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to journalist and government critic Maria Ressa was proof that “press freedom is alive” in the nation.
Ressa, cofounder of news Web site Rappler, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the prize on Friday last week for their efforts to “safeguard freedom of expression.”
Since Duterte took power in 2016, Ressa and Rappler have faced a series of criminal charges and investigations in what media advocates describe as state harassment over their reporting, including on the government’s deadly drug war.
Photo: Reuters
Duterte has called Rappler a “fake news outlet” and Ressa has been the target of abusive messages online.
“It’s a victory for a Filipina and we’re very happy for that,” Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, told a news conference.
“Press freedom is alive and the proof is the Nobel [Peace] Prize award to Maria Ressa,” Roque said in the presidential palace’s first public comments on the award.
Philippine press groups and rights advocates have hailed Ressa’s prize as a “triumph” in a nation ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists.
Ressa, 58, said in an interview on Saturday that she was still battling seven court cases, including an appeal of a cyberlibel conviction, for which she faces up to six years in prison.
Two other cyberlibel cases were dismissed earlier this year.
Ressa, who is also a US citizen, said she hoped that the prize would help shield her and other journalists in the Philippines against physical attacks and online threats.
“This ‘us against them’ was never the creation of the journalists, it was the creation of the people in power who wanted to use a type of leadership that divides society,” Ressa said. “I hope ... this allows journalists to do our jobs well without fear.”
Roque denied the government had created a “chilling effect” for media outlets, saying anyone who claimed that “should not be a journalist.”
He also rejected suggestions Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize was “a slap” for the Philippine government, adding “no one has ever been censored in the Philippines.”
“Maria Ressa still has to clear her name before our courts,” Roque said, calling her a “convicted felon.”
“We leave it to our courts to decide on her fate,” he said.
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