Committee to Protect Journalists – Defending Journalists Worldwide.

CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards event honors fearless journalists

International Press Freedom Award honorees (beginning third from left) Quimy de Leon, Samira Sabou, and Alsu Kurmasheva, attend CPJ's IPFA event on November 21 in New York City, along with host John Oliver (left), Perrine Daubas (second from left), wife of Gwen Ifill Press Freedom awardee Christophe Deloire, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg (second from right), and Board Chair Jacob Weisberg. Awardee Shrouq Al Aila was not allowed to leave Gaza to attend the event. (Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) — IPFA honorees (beginning third from left) Quimy de Leon, Samira Sabou, and Alsu Kurmasheva, attend CPJ’s IPFA event on November 21 in New York City, along with host John Oliver (left), Perrine Daubas (second from left), wife of Gwen Ifill Press Freedom awardee Christophe Deloire, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg (second from right), and Board Chair Jacob Weisberg. Awardee Shrouq Al Aila was not allowed to leave Gaza to attend the event. (Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) celebrated four journalists from Gaza, Guatemala, Niger, and Russia at the 34th annual International Press Freedom Awards (IPFA) in New York on Thursday, raising $2.4 million to protect journalists around the world.

This year’s awardees were: Palestinian journalist Shrouq Al Aila, and director of Ain Media in Gaza; Quimy de León, a Guatemalan journalist and co-founder of Prensa Comunitaria; Samira Sabou; a prominent investigative journalist in Nigeria, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist and editor jailed by Russia in 2023.

CPJ’s board of directors also posthumously honored Christophe Deloire, who served as director general of the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), with the 2024 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

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Hong Kong jail is ‘breaking’ publisher Jimmy Lai, son says

Jimmy Lai walks through the Stanley prison in Hong Kong in 2023. (Photo: AP/Louise Delmotte)

In his tireless global campaign to save 77-year-old media publisher Jimmy Lai from life imprisonment in Hong Kong, Sebastien Lai has not seen his father for more than four years.

After multiple delays to his trial, the aging British citizen was due to take the stand for the first time on November 20 on charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces, which he denies.

In an interview with CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi, Sebastien, who leads the #FreeJimmyLai campaign, spoke about prison’s toll on his father, why he should be released immediately, and how Britain and other nations are supporting that effort.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan