The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will honor 4 courageous journalists from Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, and Russia in the 2020 International Press Freedom Awards (IPFA). All 4 awardees have been arrested or have faced criminal prosecution in reprisal for their reporting.
This year’s IPFA awardees are the following:
Shahidul Alam (Bangladesh) is a renowned photojournalist and commenter, and founder of the Bangladeshi multimedia training organization the Pathshala Media Institute and the Drik photo library. In August 2018, Alam was detained after posting a video on social media about student protests in Dhaka.
Mohammad Mosaed (Iran) is a freelance economic reporter who investigates corruption, embezzlement, labor issues, economic sanctions, and popular protests. Mosaed was arrested in late 2019 in relation to a tweet and was released in early 2020. He was briefly arrested again in February after criticizing the government’s handling of COVID-19.
Dapo Olorunyomi (Nigeria) is the co-founder, CEO, and publisher of Nigerian newspaper Premium Times. During his decades-long career as a journalist, he has been a fierce defender of press freedom in Nigeria despite repeated government harassment.
Svetlana Prokopyeva (Russia) is a regional correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty or Radio Svoboda. She was charged with “justifying terrorism,” and her bank accounts were frozen in relation to comments she made on a suicide bombing attack in 2018.
CPJ will also honor international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney with the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, which recognizes extraordinary and sustained commitment to press freedom. Clooney has represented embattled reporters around the world and has promoted freedom of speech and journalism through the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative.
Rappler’s Maria Ressa, who received the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award in 2018, will be interviewing Clooney for this year’s IPFA show.
Watch the 2020 International Press Freedom Awards at 9 am on Friday, November 20 (Philippine time). – Rappler.com
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