SAN JOS, May 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Nicaragua has notified UNESCO of its withdrawal from the organization in response to its press prize going to a Nicaraguan newspaper in exile, local media reported Sunday.

UNESCO on Saturday handed its annual award to Nicaragua's oldest newspaper, La Prensa, whose staff have been forced to publish from abroad as President Daniel Ortega tightens his grip on power.

In a statement carried by Nicaraguan media, Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke said UNESCO's decision was "unacceptable and inadmissible."

He claimed in a statement carried by media that the newspaper was in the service of the United States and condoned US interference in the country.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement that Nicaragua's decision would "deprive Nicaragua's population of the benefits of a cooperation focused notably on education and culture."

But the agency's role was also "to defend the freedom of expression everywhere," Azoulay said.

La Prensa, a title almost 100 years old, has been publishing online since Nicaraguan police in 2021 stormed its premises and arrested its manager Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro.

A Nicaraguan court in 2022 sentenced Holmann to nine years in jail, then in 2023 deported him to the United States.

Ortega, 79, first served as president from 1985 to 1990 as a former guerrilla hero before returning to power in 2007.

Since then Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents.

In a statement, Ortega's government said the decision to the award the newspaper was "shameful" and described the outlet as "a diabolical expression of traitorous anti-patriotic feeling against Nicaragua."

Writing on social media, Holmann said authorities' outrage over the award "gives greater strength to the recognition" of the paper.

Nicaragua has shut down more than 5,000 non-governmental organizations since the 2018 mass protests, in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died.