CPJ
to present annual international press freedom
awards
New York, September 25, 2003-The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) will honor four journalists-from
Afghanistan, Russia, Morocco, and Cuba-with the
2003 International Press Freedom Awards in November.
Abdul Samay Hamed (Afghanistan), Aboubakr Jamai
(Morocco), Musa Muradov (Russia), and Manuel Vázquez
Portal (Cuba) have suffered serious reprisals
for daring to report with independence and authority
in countries where dissent is not easily tolerated.
In addition, John F. Burns, chief foreign correspondent
for The New York Times, will receive CPJ's Burton
Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement.
The awards will be presented at a dinner ceremony
at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Tuesday,
November 25. Stan O'Neal, chairman and CEO of
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., will chair the
black-tie dinner, which CBS News anchor Dan Rather
will host. Rather has been a member of CPJ's board
since 1982.
2003 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardees:
Manuel Vázquez Portal was a high
school teacher, a literary adviser to Cuba's Ministry
of Culture, and a journalist for several state-owned
media outlets before he began working for the
independent news agency Cuba Press in 1995. Four
years later, he helped establish the independent
news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro. In March
2003, Vázquez Portal was arrested when
the Cuban government launched a massive crackdown
on the independent press and the opposition. In
all, 28 journalists were arrested, convicted,
and given prison sentences ranging from 14 to
27 years. Vázquez Portal remains in jail,
where he is serving an 18-year sentence on spurious
charges.
Abdul Samay Hamed is an independent writer,
publisher, political cartoonist, poet, and one
of the most important voices for press freedom
in Afghanistan today. In 1998, he fled the Taliban
and went into exile but returned in early 2002
to start the Association for the Defense of Afghan
Writers' Rights and the magazine Telaya. Telaya's
bold articles and Hamed's commentaries about the
political and social problems that plague the
country earned him powerful enemies: In April,
two men armed with knives attacked Hamed in the
capital, Kabul, in reprisal for his critical comments
about the power of warlords.
Aboubakr Jamai is the publisher of Morocco's
groundbreaking weekly newspaper Le Journal Hebdomadaire
and its sister publication, Assahifa al Ousbouiya.
Since they were founded in the late 1990s under
the names Le Journal and Assahifa, the papers
have boldly staked out new terrain in Moroccan
journalism through tough investigative reporting
on government corruption, corporate impropriety,
and feature stories about taboo political topics.
In 2000, the government closed both papers for
publishing a letter tying a former prime minister
to a 1972 assassination plot against King Hassan
II. After re-launching the papers under new names,
Jamai and a colleague were convicted in 2001 of
defaming the foreign minister in an investigative
article that accused him of corruption. They were
sentenced to several months in prison and were
ordered to pay fines and damages totaling nearly
US$200,000. The journalists remain free pending
an appeal.
Musa Muradov is the editor-in-chief of
Chechnya's only truly independent publication,
the weekly Groznensky Rabochy. Muradov has been
repeatedly harassed and threatened by both Russian
federal authorities and by Chechen rebels because
he refuses to allow Groznensky Rabochy to become
a mouthpiece for either side in the ongoing civil
conflict. In 1996, one of Muradov's reporters
was killed in crossfire, and Muradov himself was
trapped in a basement for 14 days because of the
intense shelling of the capital, Grozny. In 1999,
another reporter was killed and a bomb destroyed
the paper's editorial offices, forcing Muradov
to flee Chechnya. He continues to edit the weekly
from Moscow and distribute it in Chechnya despite
increased government restrictions on media coverage
of the conflict.
Burton Benjamin Memorial Award:
CPJ will honor John F. Burns, chief foreign correspondent
of The New York Times, with the Burton Benjamin
Memorial Award, which is given for a lifetime
of distinguished achievement for the cause of
press freedom. The Burton Benjamin Award is named
for the late CBS News senior producer and former
CPJ chairman, who died in 1988.
Burns has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work
in war zones (in 1997 for reporting on Afghanistan's
Taliban fighters and in 1993 for his coverage
of Bosnia) and two George Polk Awards (one as
part of a team reporting on South Africa in 1979
at the height of apartheid and one in 1996 for
his Afghan coverage). After four decades in journalism,
he was appointed chief foreign correspondent at
The New York Times in April 2003. He has served
as the Times bureau chief in New Delhi, Toronto,
Moscow, and Beijing.
In announcing the awards, CPJ Board Chairman
David Laventhol said, "The four foreign journalists
we are honoring have endured hardship, violence,
and deprivation for performing the most critical
journalistic function: reporting honestly and
accurately on what they see each day. None of
them set out to be heroes, but to us that's what
they've become."
Ann Cooper, CPJ executive director, said of the
journalists, "In a year in which we have
been painfully reminded of the danger that journalists
confront while covering war, it's important that
we honor and recognize the courage of local journalists
around the world who confront similar risks while
reporting right outside their own front door."
For more information about the award winners,
and for information about CPJ's work or CPJ, visit
our Web site at www.cpj.org or call 212-465-1004
x105.
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