11 March 2003
ISRAELI JOURNALIST WINS UNESCO PRESS-FREEDOM PRIZE
Amira Hass, the only Israeli journalist living in the Autonomous Palestinian Territories, has been awarded the 2003 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. A journalist with the daily Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz," Hass has spent the past decade reporting from the territories, filing independent and critical reports on the policies of both Israelis and Palestinians.
She moved to Gaza in 1993 and settled in Ramallah, the West Bank, in 1997.
"Hass has been showing outstanding professional commitment, independence and courage," which has exposed her to pressure from both sides, said UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura. UNESCO will present Hass with the prize at a World Press Freedom Day ceremony on 3 May in Jamaica.
An independent jury of media professionals selected Hass for the US$25,000 award, named in honour of Guillermo Cano, the Colombian journalist murdered in 1987 for criticising the country's drug lords. Previous winners of the prize include Zimbabwean journalist Geoffrey Nyarota, imprisoned Burmese reporter U Win Tin and Chinese journalist Gao Yu.
For more information on Hass and the prize, go to:
http://portal.unesco.org
Visit these links:
- Ha'aretz:
www.haaretz.com
- International Press Institute names Hass a "Press Freedom Hero":
www.freemedia.at
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