Fondation de France Prize for 2006 Nominees
Press release
Paris, 8 December 2006
The Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize for 2006 will be awarded in Paris on 12 December. This prize is given to:
- A journalist who has demonstrated a commitment to press freedom in his or her work, in the views he or she has expressed publicly, or in the stance he or she has taken
- A news media that embodies the struggle for the right to inform and be informed
- A defender of press freedom
- A cyber-dissident who has been prevented from providing news and information on the Internet.
Here is the list of nominees in each of the four categories. You will find more information about each of them on the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org).
The "Journalist of the Year" and the winners in the three other categories are chosen by a 35-member international jury.
"Journalist of the Year" category:
1/ Dawit Isaac, Eritrea
The owner
of the weekly Setit, journalist Dawit Isaac, 42, was
arrested on 23 September 2001 during a round-up that
followed the closure of all of Eritrea's privately-owned
press. He is one of 13 detained newspaper publishers,
editors and journalists who are accused by the government,
without any evidence, of being "traitors" and "spies" for
Ethiopia.
2/ U Win Tin, Burma
More than 17 years in
prison and failing health have not broken the will of the
man known by his comrades as the "Wise One." Aged 76 and now
in a special cell in Insein prison near Rangoon, U Win Tin
still refuses to renege on his commitment to the opposition
National League for Democracy, which was robbed of a
sweeping election victory in 1990. He still insists that he
and all of Burma's thousands of other prisoners of
conscience must be released unconditionally.
3/ Hollman Felipe Morris, Colombia
In a country torn by civil war for more than 40 years, 36-year-old journalist Hollman Morris has become one of the most respected specialists in the peace process and human rights. In 2003, he took over as producer/presenter of "Contravía" (Contrarian), a programme about the civil war and human rights initiatives. His investigative journalism has won him many enemies. A fierce critic of President Álvaro Úribe, he is in the sights of all the armed groups and has repeatedly been threatened.
Media Category
1/ Democratic Voice of Burma,
Burma
A radio station founded in 1992 by pro-democracy
students who had escaped the 1988 massacres, the Oslo-based
Democratic Voice of Burma launched the first independent
Burmese TV station, DVB TV, in 2005. Although broadcasting
TV programmes just two hours a week, it reaches all of Burma
and has upset the generals in Rangoon, who are used to
keeping tight control over the news carried by the Burmese
media.
2/ Uthayan, Sri Lanka
Widely read in Jaffna, the
daily Uthayan has maintained a relatively independent
editorial line for nearly 20 years, despite the civil war
raging in northern Sir Lanka. At least five of its employees
have been killed this year, two of them in an attack on the
newspaper on the eve of World Press Freedom Day. The press
that prints the Colombo edition was the target of an arson
attack in September. In Jaffna, the newspaper has twice been
forced to publish communiqués at gunpoint.
3/ An-Nahar,
Lebanon
Founded in August 1933, An-Nahar is Lebanon's
leading Arabic-language daily newspaper. Moderate and
liberal, it is viewed as a newspaper of record, one read by
intellectuals, students and businessmen alike. It was spared
in the recent war with Israel, which hit many of Lebanon's
media and caused the death of a journalist. But it was badly
hit in 2005, when Samir Kassir, who had been a columnist
with the newspaper for 10 years, was killed by a car-bomb in
June and Gebran Tueni, its general manager was killed by a
car-bomb in December.
4/ Novaya Gazeta, Russia
Novaya
Gazeta is known for its investigative journalism and for
exposing corruption in the Russian government. Very critical
of the Putin administration, it published many reports by
Anna Politkovskaya, both on Chechnya and on the way Russian
society has evolved. Politkovskaya also covered violence
against journalists and other press freedom violations for
the newspaper.
Cyber-dissident Category
1/ Habib Saleh,
Syria
President Bashar al-Assad has turned Syria into one
of the Internet's worst black holes. Online opposition
publications are systematically filtered and the political
police hunt down dissidents and independents journalists who
use the Internet to express their views. Writer and
businessman Habib Saleh, 59, is one of the victims of this
crackdown on cyber-dissent. He was arrested on 29 May 2005,
accused of disseminating "mendacious reports" on the
Internet, and sentenced to three years in prison in an
unfair trial.
2/ Yang Zili, China
A computer
specialist, Yang Zili was sentenced on 28 May 2003 to eight
years in prison for "subverting state authority." His crime
was to have posted articles on his website, The Garden of
Yang Zili's Ideas (lib.126.com), advocating political
liberalism, criticising the government's crackdown on the
Falungong spiritual movement and deploring the economic woes
of the peasantry.
3/ Guillermo Fariñas Hernández,
Cuba
The head of the independent Cubanacán Press agency,
Guillermo Fariñas staged an all-out hunger strike in
February 2006, taking no food or liquid, to press his demand
for unrestricted Internet access for all Cubans. The
authorities had to hospitalise him and forcibly put him on a
drip in order to put an end to the protest, which was
getting increasing attention in the international news
media.
Defender of Press Freedom Category
1/ Centro de
Periodismo y Etica Pública (CEPET), Mexico
Founded in
Mexico by journalist Leonarda Reyes, the Centre for
Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) was not originally
dedicated to defending free expression. But it soon made
this its priority as Mexico became one of the western
hemisphere's most dangerous countries for journalists from
2004 onwards.
2/ Tajigul Begmedova,
Turkmenistan
Tajigul Begmedova heads the Turkmenistan
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. She founded this
organisation in Bulgaria, where she has lived since March
2002 after being forced to go into exile because of
increasing harassment inside Turkmenistan. Since then, she
has constantly denounced human rights violations by what is
one of the world's most repressive regimes for
journalists.
3/ Journalist in Danger (JED), Democratic
Republic of Congo
Founded by journalists Donat M'Baya
Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi in 1997 and based in
Kinshasa, Journalist in Danger (JED) is one of Africa's most
active and respected press freedom organisations. It is
tireless in reminding journalists of their responsibilities
in a country where many of them are easily bribed. It is
also spearheading the struggle to get the government to
reform draconian legislation under which journalists are
regularly imprisoned.
4/ Anwar Al Bunni, Syria
Lawyer
and human rights activist Anwar Al Bunni is a founding
member of the Organisation for Human Rights in Syria and
president of the Prisoners of Conscience Defence Committee.
He has taken many risks to expose and denounce the Baathist
regime's abuses in recent years, and acts as legal
representative for many of the activists who fall victim to
the "Moukhabarat" (the intelligence services). He is
frequently cited by international organisations, which
regard him as a reliable and independent source who can help
to explain the situation in Syria.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE CEREMONY
The award ceremony will take place at 7:30 p.m. on 12 December
A tribute will be paid to Gebran Tueni, the general manager of the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, who was murdered on 12 December 2005. Yalda Younès will perform NON, a dance number written by Zad Moultaka in homage to Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir.
Those attending will
include:
- Mustapha Cherif, an Algerian philosopher, who
will comment on one of the most dramatic developments for
press freedom in 2006, the publication of the Mohammed
cartoons.
- Fernando Castelló, president of Reporters
Without Borders International
- Robert Ménard,
secretary-general
ENDS
www.rsf.org