CPJ International Press Freedom Awards

The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honor journalists or their publications around the world who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment.[1] Established in 1991, the awards are administered by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, non-governmental organization based in New York City.[2] In addition to recognizing individuals, the organization seeks to focus local and international media coverage on countries where violations of press freedom are particularly serious.[3]

International Press Freedom Awards
Awarded forcourage in defending press freedom in the face of attacks, threats or imprisonment
LocationNew York City
CountryUnited States
Presented byCommittee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
First awarded1991
WebsiteAwards website

Every November four to seven individuals or publications are honored at a banquet in New York City and given an award.[4] The ceremony also honors the winner of the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for "lifelong work to advance press freedom".[5] Past hosts have included crime correspondent and former hostage Terry A. Anderson,[6] Amanpour host Christiane Amanpour,[7] and NBC Nightly News anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw.[1][3] In 1998, the ceremony was briefly disrupted by protesters who unfurled a banner calling for the release of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal from Pennsylvania's death row.[8]

History

The first awards were given in 1991 to American photojournalist Bill Foley and his wife, journalist Cary Vaughan; Cameroonian reporter Pius Njawé; Chinese dissidents Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming; Russian television news anchor Tatyana Mitkova; and Guatemalan reporter Byron Barrera.[9] In 2014, the organization awarded its twenty-fourth group of journalists.[10] On three occasions, an award was also given to a news organization of which multiple staffers have been at risk: Tajikistan newspaper Navidi Vakhsh (1994), several reporters of which murdered during the 1992–1997 civil war;[11] Guatemalan newspaper Siglo Veintiuno (1995), which was subject to police and army raids for its uncensored coverage of government corruption and human rights violations;[12] and Turkish newspaper Özgür Gündem (1996), which was subject to a campaign of publication bans, assassinations, and arrests for its reporting on the conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party.[13]

Occasionally, imprisoned laureates accept their awards at a later ceremony, such as China's Jiang Weiping, who was awarded in 2001 but attended the ceremony in 2009,[14] and Azerbaijan's Eynulla Fatullayev, who was awarded in 2009 but attended the ceremony in 2011.[5] Sri Lankan reporter J. S. Tissainayagam was also awarded in 2009 while imprisoned, but was released in time to attend the 2010 ceremony, quipping in his acceptance speech: "Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for being late."[3]

The award was given posthumously on three occasions: to David Kaplan, an ABC News producer killed by a sniper in Sarajevo in 1992;[6] to Paul Klebnikov, a Russian Forbes journalist shot to death in 2004 by unknown attackers;[15] and to Atwar Bahjat, an Iraqi journalist for Al Arabiya who was abducted and murdered in February 2006.[16] A number of other laureates had been threatened or attacked in the year preceding their award, such as Guatemalan journalist Byron Barrera (1991), whose wife was murdered in an attack on their car,[17] and Željko Kopanja (2000), who lost his legs in a car bomb.[18] Other laureates have been killed after their awards, such as Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin (1995), awarded a year before her murder,[19] and Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana (1991), awarded two years before being fatally shot by a US soldier in Iraq.[20] Eritrean journalist Fesshaye Yohannes (2002) died while still imprisoned; owing to conflicting reports and the secrecy of his confinement, the cause and year of his death remain unclear.[21]

Recipients

This list includes the recipients of the award as recorded at the official CPJ website. It is sortable by year, name, and country; owing to naming conventions in different countries, not all names are sorted by last name. Names in italics are publications which have received the award.

1991 recipient Tatyana Mitkova
1993 recipient Veran Matić
1998 recipient Goenawan Mohamad
2007 recipient Dmitry Muratov
2008 recipient Andrew Mwenda
2011 recipient Mansoor Al-Jamri
2020 recipient Shahidul Alam
2005 recipient Beatrice Mtetwa
Key
Award received posthumously
Recipients by year and country
YearHonoreesCountryRef.
1991Bill Foley and Cary Vaughan  United States[9]
Pius Njawé  Cameroon[9]
Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming  People's Republic of China[9]
Tatyana Mitkova  Russia[9]
Byron Barrera  Guatemala[9]
1992David Kaplan  United States[9]
Mohammed Al-Sager  Kuwait[9]
Sony Esteus  Haiti[9]
Gwendolyn Lister  Namibia[9]
Thepchai Yong  Thailand[9]
1993Omar Belhouchet  Algeria[9]
Đoàn Viết Hoạt  Vietnam[9]
Nosa Igiebor  Nigeria[9]
Veran Matić  Serbia[9]
Ricardo Uceda  Peru[9]
1994Iqbal Athas  Sri Lanka[9]
Aziz Nesin  Turkey[9]
Yndamiro Restano  Cuba[9]
Daisy Li Yuet-Wah  Hong Kong[9]
Navidi Vakhsh  Tajikistan[9]
1995Yevgeny Kiselyov  Russia[9]
José Rubén Zamora Marroquín and Siglo Veintiuno  Guatemala[9]
Fred M'membe  Zambia[9]
Ahmad Taufik  Indonesia[9]
Veronica Guerin  Ireland[9]
1996Yusuf Jameel  India[9]
Jesús Blancornelas  Mexico[9]
Daoud Kuttab  Palestine[9]
Ocak Işık Yurtçu and Özgür Gündem  Turkey[9]
1997Christine Anyanwu  Nigeria[22]
Ying Chan and Shieh Chung-liang  Hong Kong, China,  Republic of China (Taiwan)[22]
Freedom Neruda  Ivory Coast[22]
Viktor Ivančić  Croatia[22]
Yelena Masyuk  Russia[22]
1998Grémah Boucar  Niger[23]
Gustavo Gorriti  Peru[23]
Goenawan Mohamad  Indonesia[23]
Pavel Sheremet  Belarus[23]
Ruth Simon  Eritrea[23]
1999Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández  Cuba[24]
Jesús Barraza Zavala  Mexico[24]
Baton Haxhiu  Kosovo[24]
Jugnu Mohsin and Najam Sethi  Pakistan[24]
María Cristina Caballero  Colombia[24]
2000Željko Kopanja  Bosnia and Herzegovina[25]
Modeste Mutinga  Democratic Republic of the Congo[25]
Steven Gan  Malaysia[25]
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin  Iran[25]
2001Jiang Weiping  People's Republic of China[26]
Geoffrey Nyarota  Zimbabwe[26]
Horacio Verbitsky  Argentina[26]
Mazen Dana  Palestine[26]
2002Ignacio Gómez  Colombia[27]
Tipu Sultan  Bangladesh[27]
Irina Petrushova  Kazakhstan[27]
Fesshaye Yohannes  Eritrea[27]
2003Abdul Samay Hamed  Afghanistan[28]
Aboubakr Jamaï  Morocco[28]
Musa Muradov  Russia[28]
Manuel Vázquez Portal  Cuba[28]
2004Svetlana Kalinkina  Belarus[29]
Aung Pwint and Thaung Tun  Burma[29]
Alexis Sinduhije  Burundi[29]
Paul Klebnikov  United States[29]
2005Galima Bukharbaeva  Uzbekistan[30]
Beatrice Mtetwa  Zimbabwe[30]
Lúcio Flávio Pinto  Brazil[30]
Shi Tao  People's Republic of China[30]
2006Jesús Abad Colorado  Colombia[31]
Jamal Amer  Yemen[31]
Madi Ceesay  Gambia[31]
Atwar Bahjat  Iraq[31]
2007Mazhar Abbas  Pakistan[32]
Dmitry Muratov  Russia[32]
Adela Navarro Bello  Mexico[32]
Gao Qinrong  People's Republic of China[32]
2008Bilal Hussein  Iraq[33]
Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad  Afghanistan[33]
Andrew Mwenda  Uganda[33]
Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez  Cuba[33]
2009Mustafa Haji Abdinur  Somalia[34]
Naziha Réjiba  Tunisia[34]
Eynulla Fatullayev  Azerbaijan[34]
J. S. Tissainayagam  Sri Lanka[34]
2010Mohammad Davari  Iran[35]
Nadira Isayeva  Russia[35]
Dawit Kebede  Ethiopia[35]
Laureano Márquez  Venezuela[35]
2011Mansoor al-Jamri  Bahrain[5]
Natalya Radina  Belarus[5]
Javier Valdez Cárdenas  Mexico[5]
Umar Cheema  Pakistan[5]
2012Mauri König  Brazil[36]
Dhondup Wangchen  China[36]
Azimzhan Askarov  Kyrgyzstan[36]
Mae Azango  Liberia[36]
2013Janet Hinostroza  Ecuador[37]
Bassem Youssef  Egypt[37]
Nedim Şener  Turkey[37]
Nguyễn Văn Hải  Vietnam[37]
2014Mikhail Zygar  Russia[10]
Ferial Haffajee  South Africa[10]
Siamak Ghaderi  Iran[10]
Aung Zaw  Burma[10]
2015Zulkiflee Anwar Haque  Malaysia[38]
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently  Syria[38]
Cándido Figueredo Ruíz  Paraguay[38]
Zone 9 Bloggers  Ethiopia[38]
2016Mahmoud Abou Zeid  Egypt[39]
Malini Subramaniam  India[39]
Can Dündar  Turkey[39]
Óscar Martínez  El Salvador[39]
2017Pravit Rojanaphruk  Thailand[40]
Ahmed Abba  Cameroon[40]
Patricia Mayorga  Mexico[40]
Afrah Nasser  Yemen[40]
2018Amal Habani  Sudan[41]
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh  Vietnam[41]
Luz Mely Reyes  Venezuela[41]
Anastasia Stanko  Ukraine[41]
2019Neha Dixit  India[42]
Patrícia Campos Mello  Brazil[42]
Lucía Pineda Ubau and Miguel Mora  Nicaragua[42]
Maxence Melo Mubyazi  Tanzania[42]
2020Shahidul Alam  Bangladesh[43]
Mohammad Mosaed  Iran[43]
Dapo Olorunyomi  Nigeria[43]
Svetlana Prokopyeva  Russia[43]
2021Katsiaryna Barysevich  Belarus[44]
Anastasia Mejía  Guatemala[44]
Matías Guente  Mozambique[44]
Aye Chan Naing  Myanmar[44]
2022Abraham Jiménez Enoa  Cuba[45]
Niyaz Abdullah  Iraq[45]
Sevgil Musayeva  Ukraine[45]
Phạm Đoan Trang  Vietnam[45]
2023Nika Gvaramia  Georgia[46]
Anastasia Mejía  Netherlands[46]
Matías Guente  Mozambique[46]
Aye Chan Naing  Myanmar[46]

References

External links