Jailed Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio had been nominated to this year’s UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
The campaign for Cumpio’s freedom gained added boost as she stands to win one of the world’s most prestigious press freedom awards.
In jail for more than six years already, Cumpio had been red-tagged for her human rights stories before being arrested on February 7, 2020 in Tacloban City, Leyte.
Cumpio was executive director of the news site Eastern Vista and a radio host for Aksyon Radyo Tacloban (DYVL) before her arrest.
Created in 1997, the annual Guillermo Cano Prize honors a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defense and promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
The winner is conferred the Prize on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day May 3.
UNESCO named the award after Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia in December 1986.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Free Press Unlimited nominated Cumpio, describing her “an icon of press freedom in the country.
RSF said she “embodies the resilience of today’s journalists in the Philippines.”
“Frenchie Mae Cumpio embodies fearless investigative reporting. She should be celebrated as a national icon helping shape the country’s journalism — not imprisoned on the basis of fabricated charges. She fully deserves the recognition of the Guillermo Cano Prize jury for her investigations into human rights violations committed by the military and for her unwavering commitment to press freedom in the Philippines.” — Aleksandra Bielakowska, Advocacy Manager, RSF Asia-Pacific
Cumpio was acquitted of illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges last January 22 but was controversially convicted of “financing terrorism.”
Press freedom advocates decried the guilty verdict on Cumpio and fellow-accused Marielle Domequil “based solely on the testimonies of witnesses who, according to an RSF investigation, are under military protection and are witnesses in several similar human rights cases brought by the military against civilians.
In January 2026, RSF and the #FreeFrenchieMaeCumpio coalition brought together 90 press associations and unions all over the world to call on Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to immediately release the journalist.
The Philippines ranks among the most dangerous countries in the world for media professionals, coming in 116th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)