Vocal journalist, Azeri ’Alternative Nobel’ winner barred from going to Sweden

STOCKHOLM - The Associated Press

The organization behind the "Alternative Nobel" said a 2017 prize winner has been barred from leaving her native Azerbaijan to attend the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm.

Azeri investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova argued in a statement issued by the Right Livelihood Award that she was given the travel ban "because I criticize the government when it steals the people’s money."

Lawyers Colin Gonsalves from India and Yetnebersh Nigussie of Ethiopia also were given the 2017 award for "their courageous work" in human rights, public health and good governance, and share a cash award of 3 million kronor ($374,000) with Ismayilova.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.