A TOP aide to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to journalist and government critic Maria Ressa is proof that “press freedom is alive” in the country.

Ressa, co-founder of news website Rappler, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the prize on Friday 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 deadly drug war by the government.

Duterte has called Rappler a “fake news outlet”, and Ressa has been the target of abusive messages online.

“It is a victory for a Filipina, and we are very happy for that. Press freedom is alive, and the proof is the Nobel Prize award to Maria Ressa,” said spokesman Harry Roque, in the first public comments on the award by the presidential palace.

Philippine press groups and rights activists have hailed Ressa’s prize as a “triumph” in a country ranked as one of the most dangerous for journalists in the world.

Ressa, 58, told AFP in an interview on Saturday that she is still battling seven court cases, including an appeal of a cyber-libel conviction, for which she faces up to six years in prison.

Two other cyber-libel cases were dismissed earlier this year.

Ressa, who is also a United States citizen, said she hopes the prize will help shield her and other journalists in the Philippines against physical attacks and online threats.

“This ‘us against them’ was never the creation of journalists, it was the creation of the people in power who wanted to use a type of leadership that divides society.

“I hope… this allows journalists to do our jobs well without fear.”

Roque denied that the government has created a “chilling effect” for media outlets, saying anyone who claimed that “should not be a journalist”.

He also rejected suggestions that Ressa’s prize is “a slap” for the government, insisting “no one has ever been censored in the Philippines”.

“Maria Ressa still has to clear her name before our courts,” he said, calling her a “convicted felon”.

“We leave it to our courts to decide on her fate.” – AFP, October 11, 2021.