NEWS
CPJ names winners of International Press Freedom Awards
Peter Jennings also to be honored in November ceremony
Source: CPJ



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October 17, 2005
New York, October 17, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists will
present its 2005 International Press Freedom Awards to three journalists
and a media lawyer—from Brazil, China, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe—who have
endured beatings, threats, intimidation, and jail because of their work.

The awards will be presented at CPJ’s 15th annual awards dinner at the
Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Tuesday, November 22. Here are the
awardees:

Ø Galima Bukharbaeva, former Uzbekistan correspondent for the Institute
for War & Peace Reporting, risked her life covering the killing of
hundreds of protestors by government troops in the city of Andijan in May.
Bukharbaeva, now in exile in the United States, faces criminal prosecution
for her reporting on the Andijan crisis, police torture, and the
repression of Islamic activists.

Ø Beatrice Mtetwa, a media lawyer, is a tireless defender of press freedom
in Zimbabwe, where the law is used as a weapon against independent
journalists. Despite being arrested and beaten because of her work, she
continues at great personal risk to defend journalists. She has won
acquittals for several journalists facing criminal charges, including two
London journalists arrested during April’s tightly controlled presidential
election.

Ø Lúcio Flávio Pinto, publisher and editor of the bimonthly paper Jornal
Pessoal, has courageously reported on drug trafficking, environmental
devastation, and political and corporate corruption in a vast, remote
region of Brazil’s Amazon. Physically assaulted and threatened with death,
he also faces a constant barrage of civil and criminal lawsuits aimed at
silencing him.

Ø Shi Tao has been a freelance journalist for Internet publications and an
editor for Dangdai Shang Bao, a Chinese business newspaper. His essays on
political reform, published on news Web sites outside of China, drew the
ire of authorities. Now serving a 10-year prison sentence for “leaking
state secrets abroad,” Shi’s plight highlights China’s intense effort to
control information on the Internet.

CPJ will also honor the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings with the
Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for a lifetime of distinguished
achievement. Jennings learned of the award just weeks before his death in
August. During 41 years as correspondent and anchor, Jennings reported on
nearly every historical milestone from every corner of the world, earning
a reputation for independence and excellence.

“These individuals inspire us all,” said Paul Steiger, CPJ board chairman
and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. “In the face of grave
dangers, they have shown extraordinary bravery, tenacity, and dedication
in defending the free flow of vital information.”

CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said: “All of the awardees have risked
their lives and their freedom to report the truth about politicians,
policies, businesses, and crime. For their work, these journalists have
been attacked in various ways by powerful people determined to hide their
actions.”

The chairman of this year’s awards dinner is Leslie Moonves, CBS chairman.
Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Chicago Tribune
and CPJ board member, will host the awards ceremony.

Here are biographical capsules of the winners:

Galima Bukharbaeva
has drawn international attention to the Uzbek government’s authoritarian
policies, earning a reputation as one of Central Asia’s most outspoken
journalists. Her work for the London-based Institute for War & Peace
Reporting focused on sensitive issues such as police torture, repression
of Islamic activists, and state-sponsored abuses against journalists and
human rights activists. As a result, Bukharbaeva was placed under police
surveillance, denied press accreditation, and threatened with prosecution.
The government organized Soviet-style “protests” in the capital, Tashkent,
denouncing her as a traitor.

Bukharbaeva was one of the few journalists to witness and report on the
May 13 massacre in the northeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. A bullet tore
through her backpack, piercing her notebook and press pass, when troops
opened fire on demonstrators.

As a result of her reporting, state media accused her of “conducting open
information warfare against the state.” Facing government reprisals, she
fled the country and lives in New York City, where she is studying at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Beatrice Mtetwa,
a prominent media lawyer, has defended many journalists in Zimbabwe who
have been detained and harassed. In a country where the law is used as a
weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists
and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk.

This year, Mtetwa won acquittals for Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds,
journalists with The Sunday Telegraph of London, who were arrested outside
a polling station in Zimbabwe during the April presidential election. The
government of President Robert Mugabe, which severely restricted
independent coverage of the vote, had charged them with working without
accreditation.

Mtetwa has worked on behalf of the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s sole independent
daily newspaper until it was closed by the government in 2003. She
continues to defend the newspaper’s journalists, many of whom face
criminal charges for their work.

In October 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on specious allegations of drunken
driving. She was taken to a police station, where she was held for three
hours, beaten and choked, then released without charge. Although she was
unable to speak for two days as a result of the assault, she returned to
the police station on the third day, with medical evidence in hand, to
file charges.

Lúcio Flávio Pinto
reports from the lawless and isolated Amazon region of Brazil, one of the
most dangerous beats in Latin America. As publisher and editor of Jornal
Pessoal in the northern state of Pará, he covers an area that is almost
twice the size of Texas and is home to corrupt ranchers and land
speculators.
He has reported on drug trafficking, environmental devastation, and
political and corporate corruption. In return, he has been threatened and
subjected to a wave of spurious lawsuits. A powerful local media owner,
who is also a politician, attacked Pinto in a restaurant in January,
beating and kicking him. The assailant’s bodyguards provided cover during
the assault.

Writing columns and directing coverage in his small bimonthly paper, Pinto
has challenged the self-dealing and domination of a prominent media
company. In retaliation, the company’s principals have unleashed a barrage
of legal complaints.

Judges, politicians, and business owners have also filed criminal and
civil complaints against Pinto, who has exposed illegal corporate
appropriation of timber-rich land, as well as corruption involving land
titles.

Shi Tao
is serving a 10-year sentence in China on charges of “leaking state
secrets abroad.” Shi worked as an editor for Dangdai Shang Bao
(Contemporary Trade News), a newspaper in the city of Changsha, in Hunan
Province. He also wrote essays calling for political reform that were
posted on overseas news Web sites that are banned in China.

He was arrested in November 2004 for posting notes from a directive issued
by China’s Propaganda Department that instructed the media on how to cover
the 15th anniversary of the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Shi’s
appeal was rejected in June. His mother has filed for a review of the
appeal, charging “serious procedural defects.”

Shi’s imprisonment highlights the Chinese government’s intense efforts to
control the Internet, the only alternative to China’s officially
sanctioned print and broadcast media. The government monitors Internet
content, blocks Web sites, requires bloggers to register their identities,
and solicits the help of companies doing business in China. In this case,
the U.S. Internet giant Yahoo helped authorities identify Shi through his
e-mail account.
Half of the 42 journalists imprisoned in China at year’s end in 2004 were
jailed for work distributed on the Internet. Many had written for
Chinese-language Web sites hosted overseas.

Burton Benjamin Memorial Award
CPJ will also honor the late Peter Jennings, anchor and senior editor of
ABC's "World News Tonight." Jennings’ career was intertwined with the
major events of the past four decades. He reported on the building of the
Berlin wall in the 1960s and its demolition in 1989. He established the
first American television news bureau in the Arab world in 1968 and drew
on his knowledge of the region to inform his reporting in both Iraq wars.
He reported on the civil rights movement in the U.S. South during the
1960s and the struggle for equality in South Africa in the 1970s.

Jennings was one of the first reporters to go to Vietnam in the 1960s, and
he reported from Bosnia in the 1980s. He was on the scene when the
independent political movement Solidarity was born in a Polish shipyard,
and he was in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, and the
Soviet Union to record the fall of communism.

In the week following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Jennings anchored
more than 60 hours of news coverage, providing a reliable and reassuring
voice during a time of crisis. He also earned a reputation for raising
complex issues. His special series, "Peter Jennings Reporting," focused on
vital international affairs such as the tense relations between India and
Pakistan, the crisis in Haiti, and the drug trade in Central and South
America. He also tackled important domestic issues such as abortion, gun
control, and health care.

Jennings was named anchor and senior editor of "World News Tonight" in
1983. In more than 20 years in that position, he was honored with almost
every major award given to television journalists.

The Burton Benjamin Memorial Award is given for a lifetime of
distinguished achievement in the cause of press freedom. It is named in
honor of the late CBS News senior producer and former CPJ chairman who
died in 1988.



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