Nicaragua has notified UNESCO of its withdrawal from the organisation in response to its press prize going to a Nicaraguan newspaper in exile, the UN culture agency's head said.
UNESCO on Saturday handed its annual award to Nicaragua's oldest newspaper, La Prensa, whose staff have been forced to publish from abroad.
Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement on Sunday 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.
Human rights experts allege President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is his wife, "put into practice these crimes" and call for international legal action against all perpetrators.
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.
