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 celebrated four journalists from Gaza, Guatemala, Niger, and Russia at the 34th annual International Press Freedom Awards 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, with the 2024 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

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CPJ calls for probe after evidence indicates Israel targeted journalists in Lebanon

A damaged car marked with 'Press' at the site of an Israeli strike that killed a few journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses used by media in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon on October 25, 2024 — A damaged ‘Press’ car near bombed guesthouses used by the media in Lebanon on October 25. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer)

CPJ calls for an immediate international investigation into a deadly Israeli strike in Lebanon that legal experts believe could be a war crime as it likely deliberately targeted civilians, killing three members of the media.

“Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Israel must be held accountable for its actions and the international community must act to ensure that journalist murders are not allowed to go unpunished.”

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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