Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji
SOURCE: World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Paris
**Updates IFEX alert of 23 November 2005; for further information on the Ganji case, see alerts of 20 March 2006, 10
November, 7 September, 22, 9 and 2 August 2005, and others**
(WAN/IFEX) - The following is a 5 June 2006 WAN press release:
Moscow, Russia, 5 June 2006 - Golden Pen of Freedom Awarded to Iranian Journalist
An Iranian journalist who spent the last six years in jail for criticising the Iranian authorities has been awarded the
2006 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize from the World Association of Newspapers.
Akbar Ganji, a leading investigative journalist who is now one of Iran's most renowned dissidents, dedicated the award
to "all Iranian dissidents and freedom-fighters."
"And in this category, more than anyone the prize should go to those who fought for freedom and human rights and were,
as punishment, slaughtered during what came to be known as the 'Serial Murders'," he said, referring to the murders of
dissident intellectuals by Intelligence Ministry agents in the late 1990s. Mr. Ganji wrote extensively about these
cases, implicating leading conservative figures from the ruling establishment in the murders. The Ministry said "rogue
agents" were responsible for the killings.
The award was presented Monday, during the opening ceremonies of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum,
the global meetings of the world's press, which drew more than 1,700 newspaper executives and editors to Moscow, Russia.
The awards ceremony was the first opportunity for Mr. Ganji to address an international audience since his release from
prison in March.
Mr. Ganji dedicated his prize to others as well - prisoners who were executed while serving their sentences in 1987,
journalists who have been tortured and paralyzed, dissidents deprived of their social rights and imprisoned, and
Iranians who have been forced into exile "only because they dared to think and live differently."
Mr. Ganji was arrested in 2000, following his participation in a conference in Berlin in which political and social
reform were publicly discussed. He was convicted in 2001 of "insulting religious edicts and figures, threatening
national security and dissemination of propaganda against the Islamic regime."
He spent most of his term in solitary confinement. He was tortured, and went on months-long hunger strikes, prompting
both UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US President George Bush to call, in vain, for his early release. When he was
released on 18 March, he weighed only 48 kilograms (108 pounds).
In presenting the award, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum called on the Iranian regime to
respect the right of its citizens to freedom of _expression.
"Though he is out of prison, Ganji is not yet free," said George Brock, President of the World Editors Forum, who
presented the award. "Free political discussion is harder now than it was when his sentence began. The reformist
movement is on the wane. Hard-liners have taken over Parliament and ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
purging reformists from government. Iran's judiciary has closed down more than 100 pro-democracy publications in the
past five years, including the papers that Ganji wrote for. It is unlikely that any newspaper would risk publishing
Ganji's writings today."
The award citation from WAN said: "Akbar Ganji fights for freedom of _expression in Iran but his efforts are watched
around the globe. His remarkable resistance to repression and his steadfast refusal to be silenced, at great personal
cost, is an inspiration to journalists everywhere. It is through courageous journalists who do not capitulate - even in
the face of long prison terms and even death - that freedom advances."
Read Mr Ganji's full acceptance speech at: http://www.wan-press.org/article11184.html
WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry, has awarded the Golden Pen annually since 1961. Past winners
include Argentina's Jacobo Timerman (1980), South Africa's Anthony Head (1986), China's Dai Qing (1992), Vietnam's Doan
Viet Hoat of Vietnam (1998), Zimbabwe's Geoffrey Nyarota (2002), and Uzbekistan's Ruslan Sharipov (2004). The 2005
winner was journalist Mahjoub Mohamed Salih of Sudan.
The Paris-based WAN defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership
includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and
nine regional and world-wide press groups.