Award for jailed reporter

Award for jailed reporter

JAKARTA (JP): Ahmad Taufik, imprisoned former Tempo reporter, is one of five journalists named for this year's Freedom Awards, conferred by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Reuters reported yesterday.

Ahmad is currently serving a jail term after the Jakarta District Court found him guilty early this year of sowing hatred against the government.

He is the chairman of the Alliance of Independence Journalists (AJI), an organization founded by former Tempo journalists and their supporters in the wake of the government's ban against of the news magazine in June 1994. He was also editor of AJI's bulletin Independen, which both the government and the court found offensive.

Besides Ahmad, the award will be presented to Fred M'membe of Zambia, Veronica Guerin of Ireland, Yvgeny Kiselyov of Russia and Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin of Guatemala.

The committee, currently headed by Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, monitors abuses of press freedom.