Five journalists get CPJ awards

Five journalists get CPJ awards

NEW YORK (AFP): Journalists from Belarus, Eritrea, Indonesia, Niger, Panama were lauded late on Tuesday by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) for covering the news in difficult and dangerous conditions.

The 1998 International Press Freedom awards went to Gustavo Gorriti, a Peruvian currently working in Panama, AFP correspondent Ruth Simon in Eritrea, Gremah Boucar of Niger, Indonesian editor Goenawan Mohamad and Belarus journalist Pavel Sheremet.

Boucar is the founder of Niger's leading private radio station Radio Anfani and publisher of a newspaper and magazine of the same name. He had his office computers smashed, and has been arrested and threatened.

In accepting his award, Gorriti said: "Throughout Latin America, many other journalists have taken the same decision, and together, sometimes without realizing it, we were not just reporting but making history." Simon, Sheremet and Goenawan were unable to attend the awards ceremony.