14 December 2005
RSF HONOURS PRESS FREEDOM DEFENDERS
A Chinese journalist facing execution for allegedly leaking state secrets and an independent Afghan television station that launched the country's first talk show for women are among the winners of the 2005 Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France Prize.
The annual awards, each worth 2,500 Euros, honour individuals and media outlets who demonstrate a strong commitment to press freedom through their work.
Zhao Yan is a Beijing-based researcher for the "New York Times" who has been jailed since 17 September 2004 for allegedly leaking state secrets and committing fraud.
He is accused of informing a "New York Times" colleague about rumoured tensions between China's current president Hu Jintao and former leader Zheng Zimin. If convicted, Zhao Yan faces the death penalty.
Since its debut in October 2004, Afghanistan's Tolo TV has been harassed and pressured by authorities who call its programmes "immoral and anti-Islamic." Tolo TV's news programmes are often critical of the government, while its other shows have been criticised for playing Indian music videos and Western movies.
Other winners of this year's prize are the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), which works to defend journalists and press freedom in Somalia, and Syrian cyber-dissident Massoud Hamid, a journalism student who is serving a three-year prison sentence for disseminating photographs of a pro-Kurdish demonstration in Syria.
Hamid has been tortured several times, leaving his feet completely paralysed, says Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
For more information on the awardees, visit: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15849
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