13 March 2001
LAST YEAR'S SYRIAN WINNER IN DANGER
U Win Tin has won the 2001 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, while last year's winner, Nizar Nayouf, is reportedly near death in a Syrian jail. According to UNESCO, U Win Tin, former editor of the daily "Hanthawati", vice president of the Burmese Writers' Association, and a founder of the National League for Democracy, was arrested in July 1989 and sentenced to fourteen years in prison for allegedly belonging to the banned Burmese Communist Party. In 1996, U Win Tin was sentenced to an additional five years behind bars for possessing writing material, a violation of prison rules. He is currently held in the Rangoon hospital where his health condition is considered serious, reports UNESCO. Unless he renounces his political activities, which UNESCO says he refuses to do, his sentence will not end until July 2008. U Win Tin was also a winner of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) 2001 Golden Pen of Freedom award [See IFEX "Communique" #9-47].">http://communique.ifex.org/articles.cfm?category=0X&volume=9&issue_no=47%26amp;lng=english#2560">IFEX "Communique" #9-47].
The UNESCO prize's jury expresses concern over the condition of both U Win Tin and last year's winner, Nayouf, who received a ten-year sentence in 1992 for disseminating "false" information. The Syrian journalist, who also won the 2000 WAN Golden Pen of Freedom award, went on a sixteen-day hunger strike in February which ended when prison authorities lifted a ban on visits from his family. Already suffering from leukaemia and the physical effects of torture, Nayouf's condition has deteriorated because of the hunger strike, reports WAN, and he is in danger of dying. Prison authorities have reportedly refused to provide medical treatment unless Nayouf pledges to refrain from political activity, refuses the awards, and acknowledges that he made "false declarations concerning the situation of human rights in Syria." Several European newspapers participated in a letter-writing campaign in February calling for Nayouf's release, notes Reporters sans frontières (RSF). A petition calling for his release is available on RSF's website at http://www.rsf.fr. [See IFEX "Communiques" #10-5, #9-23 and #9-12.]">http://www.rsf.fr">http://www.rsf.fr. [See IFEX "Communiques" #10-5, #9-23 and #9-12.]
UNESCO's US$25,000 prize is named after Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano who was killed for his reporting on the activities of drug barons in his country. It is given annually to "a person, organisation or institution that has made a notable contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially if this involves risk." The award will be presented on 3 May during World Press Freedom Day celebrations in Windhoek, Namibia.
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