Appeals court permits journalist Maria Ressa to attend Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway

Solicitor General Jose Calida, along with a dozen other assistant solicitors general and state solicitors, wrote in an opposition filing that Ressa was a “flight risk” because “her recurring criticisms of the Philippine legal processes in the international community reveal her lack of respect for the judicial system,” the Philippine Inquirer reported.

Other organizations pushed the court to allow the Nobel recipient to travel.

“We urge the government of the Philippines to immediately withdraw any such restrictions and allow her to travel to Oslo,” a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told reporters in New York.

In its Friday resolution, the Philippine Court of Appeals granted a five-day travel period for Ressa to visit Norway, adding that she is “not a flight risk,” Reuters reported. In recent interviews, Ressa has stressed that “exile is not an option.”

The journalist has previously been allowed to leave the Philippines, including as recently as last month for lectures at Harvard University.

Ressa jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize last month with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to “safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

Ressa is facing several charges, including a corporate case with a regulator and charges for tax evasion. She is also free on bail while she appeals a six-year prison sentence for cyber libel — a case that many saw as a blow to press freedoms.

Supporters see the charges against Ressa, along with threats against her generally, as punishment for her tough scrutiny of Philippine government policies, including President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

To travel, she will be using her previous travel bond of 500,000 Philippine pesos, or around $9,904, Rappler reported.