18th Annual International Press Freedom
Awards Dinner
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Grand Ballroom, The Waldorf-Astoria,
New York City
6:30 p.m. Reception
7:45 p.m.
Dinner
10:00 p.m. Post-dinner Reception
Jeff
Zucker, NBC Universal, Dinner Chairman
To attend
click here.
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CPJ's International Press Freedom Award
winners
The Committee to Protect
Journalists is proud to honor five courageous
journalists from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, and
Cuba, and a media lawyer from Zimbabwe at its 2008
International Press Freedom Awards on November 25,
2008, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
These men and women have risked imprisonment,
harassment, and their lives to stand up for press
freedom.
Bilal
Hussein, a
photographer for The Associated Press, won a
Pulitzer Prize covering the volatile Anbar
province in western Iraq, but the native Iraqi was
arrested by U.S. forces in April 2006. He was held
for two years without charge.
Danish
Karokhel
and Farida Nekzad, the team
behind Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghanistan's leading
independent news agency, have managed to keep
Pajhwok running and timely in spite of threats to
its staff and the country's
instability.
Andrew
Mwenda,
founder and managing editor of The Independent,
a hard-hitting newsmagazine critical of the
Ugandan government, has fought for press freedom
despite ongoing harassment by police and
persecution from the government throughout his
journalism career.
Héctor Maseda
Gutiérrez
was part of Cuba's flourishing independent press
movement when he was arrested and jailed along
with 28 other journalists in Fidel Castro's
massive crackdown on political dissidents in March
2003.
Beatrice
Mtetwa,
Zimbabwe's leading media and human rights lawyer,
will receive CPJ's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award
for lifetime achievement. Mtetwa has won
acquittals for dozens of journalists arrested
under Zimbabwe's repressive media
laws.
For more information
on the dinner and the awardees, please click here. |
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CPJ aids U.S. filmmaker in Nigeria
Filmmaker Andrew Berends was
shooting his documentary "Delta Boys" when
Nigerian security officials detained him. His
friends immediately contacted CPJ as part of their
coordinated effort to win his freedom. In addition
to publicizing the case, CPJ sent a protest letter
to Nigeria's Vice President Jonathan Goodluck and
asked Nigerian Sen. Chris Anyanwu to urge the
ministers of Information and Defense to assist in
the release of Berends and his translator Samuel
George, which she did. Berends was released on
September 9 and returned home to the United
States. He talked about his experience on CPJ's blog.
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CPJ
welcomes Jehad Ali to the
U.S.
Jehad
Ali was shot by Iraqi insurgents in
December 2005 while filming for Al-Iraqiya and
left for dead. Though he received 11 bullet
wounds, he managed to survive--but his ordeal was
just beginning. In Iraq, he faced continued
threats while trying to heal and he was unable to
get proper treatment for his leg. A chance meeting
led CBS' Lara Logan to champion his case. Logan
contacted CPJ's Journalist Assistance program,
which worked with her to raise money to help bring
Jehad to the U.S. for surgery.
Ali
arrived in New York on September 26 to meet the
CPJ staff before traveling to California to
receive medical treatment.
Ali's story will be
featured in the Fall/Winter 2008 edition of
Dangerous Assignments.
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"Finding Elmar's
Killers"
A
CPJ Special
Report
When Elmar
Huseynov, editor of Azerbaijan's
newsweekly Monitor, was
gunned down in 2005, his friend and colleague
Eynulla Fatullayev went looking
for his killers. But in the midst of his
reporting, Fatullayev found himself the target of
an investigation. He was eventually sentenced to
eight and a half years in jail. "Finding Elmar's
Killers" is an
in-depth report by CPJ's Nina Ognianova that
outlines the dire situation for the independent
press in Azeribaijan, focusing on Fatullayev's
case.
Read the full report online now and the reaction of
Azerbaijan to this report.
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"The Smiling Oppressor"
A CPJ Special
Report
 Tunisia promotes
itself as a progressive nation that protects human
rights, but a CPJ investigation has found that it
aggressively silences journalists and others who
challenge the policies of President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, including Internet journalist
Slim Boukhdhir. During a mission
to the country, former Middle East Senior Program
Coordinator Joel Campagna worked to get Boukhdhir
out of jail. The journalist was released soon
after CPJ's trip. |
"The
Disappeared"
A CPJ
Special Report
Mexico's criminal gangs have a
long history of silencing the press by brazenly
gunning down reporters in broad daylight. But in a
new report, "The Disappeared," CPJ details an
ominous new trend: Seven Mexican reporters have
vanished in just three years, a tally nearly
unprecedented worldwide. This powerful report
has grabbed the attention of the Spanish-language
press, garnering coverage in major news outlets
across Latin America including Mexico, Argentina,
and Colombia.
Read the full report online
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Staff
News
CPJ welcomes two
new staff members this month. Sharon
Mootoo has joined us as our new
bookkeeper. She brings solid bookkeeping
experience and is a great addition to CPJ.
Sharon replaces Bhahrat
Shah, who left the position this month
after a long tenure working at CPJ. We wish him
the best in all his future
endeavors.
Alice Forbes
Spear has joined the CPJ staff as our new
development assistant. After graduating from NYU
with a major that combined human rights and
creative writing, she interned for a year at
Doctors Without Borders in their development
department.
We are excited to report that Nina
Ognianova, CPJ's program coordinator for
Europe and Central Asia, is quoted extensively in
the first Spanish edition of Vanity Fair
(September 2008). In a lengthy feature, "Oficio
Mortal" ("Lethal Profession"), Ognianova
discusses impunity in the murders of a
dozen Russian journalists under the presidency of
Vladimir Putin, the overall climate of censorship
in Russia, and the chilling effect of new
anti-extremism laws that Russian authorities use
selectively to muzzle
critics. |
Meredith
Greene Megaw
Communications Director
The
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh
Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212-465-1004
x105 |
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