RI journalists win international awards
RI journalists win international awards
NEW YORK (Reuters): Journalists who have braved harassment and arrest in Niger, Panama, Indonesia, Belarus and Eritrea were named on Monday as recipients of International Press Freedom Awards by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The New York-based CPJ, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending press freedom around the world, cited five journalists for "their courage and independence in reporting the news." The honors, CPJ's eighth annual International Press Freedom Awards, will be presented at formal ceremonies and a dinner in New York on Nov. 24.
The winners are:
* Gremah Boucar, founder of Radio Anfani, Niger's only private radio station, and publisher of Anfani newspaper and magazine. CPJ said Boucar had refused to be forced into exile despite attacks, harassment and arrest for his critical coverage of the government and its policies.
* Peruvian investigative reporter Gustavo Gorriti of the newspaper La Prensa in Panama. Gorriti was almost expelled from Panama last year for reporting on Colombian drug traffickers' alleged ties to the Panamanian government.
* Goenawan Mohamad, founder and editor of the Indonesian independent weekly news magazine Tempo. Goenawan reopened Tempo this month after being silenced in 1994 by former President Soeharto.
* Pavel Sheremet of Belarus, the Minsk bureau chief of Russian television station ORT and editor in chief of Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta. Sheremet has been arrested, imprisoned and denied the right to report and travel freely in Belarus, CPJ said.
* Ruth Simon, a correspondent with the French news service Agence France-Presse who has been under arrest and held in detention without trial in Eritrea since April 25, 1997. Simon reported statements by Eritrea's President Isayas Afewerki that Eritrean troops were fighting alongside rebel forces in neighboring Sudan. Eritrea has accused Simon of reporting false information regarding Eritrea's role in Sudan's civil war.
"These journalists put their freedom and their lives on the line to report the news," Gene Roberts, chairman of CPJ's board of directors, said in a statement. "It is our firm belief that by drawing attention to their courageous acts, we can help thwart the enemies of a free press who would silence their voices."
Meanwhile, Achmad Ibrahim, an Indonesian photographer for AP was awarded the prestigious Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents over the weekend for his coverage of riots that swept Jakarta in May.
The AP Jakarta bureau said on Monday that Ibrahim, 23, had worked for AP for only two weeks when he was thrust into the frontline of the chaos that led to the resignation of authoritarian president Soeharto.
Ibrahim, a former accountant who was born in Jakarta, was part of AP's team of photographers covering the trouble. The team also included his father Muchtar Zakaria, who has been with the news agency for 11 years.
Ibrahim said on Monday that he left accountancy and got into photography "to help my father".
"Before that I used to take pictures just as a hobby," he added.
Organizers of the Bayeux prize said he will receive a prize of 50,000 French francs (US$9,090) plus a trophy for his achievements. The U.S.-base Rutherford Institute recently awarded Ibrahim the $400 second prize in their Human Rights Awards.
This is the fifth year the annual prize has been awarded. It was set up as "an homage to freedom and democracy" to reward journalists for their coverage of a conflict or its consequences for civilians.
"His images powerfully illustrate the enormity of change that was taking place on the streets," said AP Jakarta's bureau chief Geoff Spencer.