The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) has announced three winners for this year's Courage in Journalism Awards to honour journalists from Bangladesh, Germany and Iran who have faced death threats, braved war zones and reported on events and people with integrity and insight.
This year's winners are Sumi Khan, a reporter with Shaptahik 2000 in Bangladesh; Anja Niedringhaus, a German travelling staff photographer for the Associated Press (AP); and, Shahla Sherkat, editorial director of Zanan in Tehran. The IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Molly Ivins, a syndicated, award-winning political columnist from the United States.
"This year’s Courage Award winners have faced death threats, braved war zones and reported on events and people with integrity and insight, while at the same time putting their lives and livelihoods at risk," Judy Woodruff, chairs of the Courage in Journalism Awards, said in a statement. "Their commitment to fair, honest reporting has put them at odds with governments and with extremists. Their work makes them champions of a free press," said Woodruff, prime anchor and senior correspondent at CNN,
Sumi Khan, 34, is a reporter with Shaptahik 2000 in Dhaka. Khan reports on politics, crime and corruption in one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. Since 2000, nine journalists have been killed in Bangladesh and reporters are routinely harassed and beaten up. In 2004, Khan began receiving threatening phone calls after she published an article about local politicians and religious organisations and their links with attacks on minority groups. The phone calls were followed by an attack against her during which she was stabbed and beaten by three assailants. Khan was injured so severely that she was unable to work for three months. Recently, she received a death threat from the student wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party after her reporting accused the group of gang activities.
Anja Niedringhaus, 39, is a German travelling staff photographer for the Associated Press (AP) and is based in Germany. Niedringhaus has reported on conflicts in the Gaza Strip, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey. Niedringhaus recently covered Iraq, where she photographed the bombing of the Red Cross headquarters, events at the Abu Ghraib prison, and the lives of Iraqi citizens living under constant threat. During the US-led offensive into Fallujah in November 2004, Niedringhaus was embedded with US Marines. She joined the AP in 2002, after working as a photojournalist for the European Press Agency. While at the EPA, Niedringhaus spent 10 years covering conflict in the Balkans. She was named EPA’s chief photographer in 1997.
Shahla Sherkat, 49, is editorial director of Zanan in Tehran. Sherkat founded the monthly magazine in 1991, after she was dismissed from her position as editorial director at Zan-e Rouz, a government-owned weekly women’s magazine because she wanted to change the way it depicted women. The Iranian government has threatened to close Zanan many times because of the daring way the magazine covers women’s rights and feminism. Zanan faces continuing financial difficulties because it is privately owned and funded. It has also been attacked by fundamentalist gangs and Sherkat has been repeatedly summoned to court to defend the articles she chooses to publish in Zanan. In January 2001, she was fined and sentenced to prison for four months after attending a conference in Berlin where discussions on the future of political change in Iran took place. She was not required to serve the prison sentence, but was forced to pay a fine equivalent to two-month’s salary.
Molly Ivins, 61, is a syndicated, award-winning political columnist in the United States. For more than 35 years, Ivins has reported and written about US government and politics for the New York Times, Texas Observer and Dallas Times-Herald. Ivins has been a columnist with Creators Syndicate since 2001. Her column appears in more than 100 newspapers. She is also the author of six books.
The IWMF created the Courage in Journalism Awards in 1990 to honour women journalists who have shown exceptional courage and bravery in the face of danger. Since 1990, 50 journalists have won the awards. This year’s awards will be presented at ceremonies in New York on October 25 and in Los Angeles on November 2.
Janet L Robinson, president and CEO of the New York Times and Jamie Dimon, president and COO of JPMorgan Chase, are event co-chairs for the New York awards ceremony. Presenters include Benjamin C Bradlee, vice president at large, the Washington Post; Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, now board chairman of the Ethical Globalization Initiative; Bob Schieffer of CBS News; and Gloria Steinem, consulting editor for Ms magazine.
