Duterte’s spokesman congratulates Philippine journalist Maria Ressa on Nobel Peace Prize
- It was the first comment from the Philippine president’s office since the Rappler founder won the award on Friday
- Spokesman Harry Roque also said some feel that Ressa ‘still has to clear her name before the courts’, referring to her multiple legal challenges
Ressa has been fighting multiple legal challenges in courts related to Rappler’s dogged investigative reporting of Duterte’s government, its bloody war on drugs, and its use of social media to target opponents.
‘Thank you Duterte’: Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize win stuns Philippines
“It is a victory for a Filipina and we are very happy for that,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a regular news conference, responding to a question on what the award meant for the government.
“Of course it is true there are individuals who feel Maria Ressa still has to clear her name before the courts,” he said, in the first comment on Friday’s award from Duterte’s camp.
The firebrand leader has described Rappler, launched in 2012, as a “fake news outlet” and a tool of the US Central Intelligence Agency, which Ressa has dismissed as nonsense.
It was the first Nobel Peace Prize for the Philippines and the first for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky won it in 1935.
The Kremlin congratulated Muratov on Friday, describing the investigative journalist as talented and brave.
Asked on Monday what her message to Duterte would be, Ressa urged him not to pursue a divide and conquer approach.
“I beg you, unite this nation. Don’t tear us apart,” she said in an interview with news channel ANC.
