News Center- The UN’s cultural agency has awarded its annual press freedom prize to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa who has been targeted by her country’s judiciary and online hate campaigns for her reporting.

Maria Ressa is a former Asia lead investigative reporter for US network CNN and she now manages the news website Rappler.

“She has been involved in many international initiatives to promote press freedom. In recent years, she has been the target of online attacks and judicial processes relating to her investigative reporting and status as manager of online outlet Rappler. She has been arrested for alleged crimes related to the exercise of her profession and has been subject to a sustained campaign of gendered online abuse, threats, and harassment, which at one point, resulted in her receiving an average of over 90 hateful messages an hour on Facebook,” UNESCO said in a statement.

“Maria Ressa’s unerring fight for freedom of expression is an example for many journalists around the world. Her case is emblematic of global trends that represent a real threat to press freedom, and therefore to democracy,” Prize’s international jury Chair Marilu Mastrogiovanni said in the statement.