World Press Freedom Day 2014 RWB PUBLISHES PROFILES OF “100 INFORMATION HEROES”

For the first time ever, Reporters Without Borders is publishing a list of profiles of “100 information heroes” for World Press Freedom Day (3 May).

Through their courageous work or activism, these “100 heroes” help to promote the freedom enshrined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the freedom to “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” They put their ideals in the service of the common good. They serve as examples.

“World Press Freedom Day, which Reporters Without Borders helped to create, should be an occasion for paying tribute to the courage of the journalists and bloggers who constantly sacrifice their safety and sometimes their lives to their vocation,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

“These ‘information heroes’ are a source of inspiration to all men and men who aspire to freedom. Without their determination and the determination of all those like them, it would be simply impossible to extend the domain of freedom.

“This obviously non-exhaustive list pays homage not only to the 100 famous and less well known people on it, but also to all the professional and non-professional journalists who constantly help to shed light on the world and cover every aspect of its reality. This initiative aims to show that the fight for freedom of information requires not only active support for the victims of abuses but also the promotion of those who can serve as models.”

The list of “100 information heroes” comprises women and men of almost all ages (25 to 75) and 65 nations. The youngest, Oudom Tat, is Cambodian and the oldest, Muhammed Ziauddin, is Pakistani. Iran, Russia, China, Eritrea, Azerbaijan, Mexico and Vietnam are each represented by at least three heroes.

The lists includes such varied figures as Anabel Hernandez, the author of a bestseller on the collusion between Mexican politicians and organized crime, Ismail Saymaz, a Turkish journalist who has been prosecuted a score of times for his reporting, Hassan Ruvakuki, who was jailed for 15 months in Burundi for interviewing members of a rebel movement, and Gerard Ryle, the head of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who has contributed to the emergence of global investigative journalism. Some work in democracies. They include Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, US citizens who were responsible for revealing the mass electronic surveillance methods used by the US and British intelligence agencies. Others, such as the Iranian journalist Jila Bani Yaghoob, work under the most authoritarian regimes.

Not all are professional journalists. The Vietnamese citizen-journalist Le Ngoc Thanh, for example, is also a Catholic priest. Many, such as Lirio Abbate, a specialist in the Sicilian mafia, have focused on covering corruption and organized crime. This is the case with Peter John Jaban, a Malaysian radio programme host who spent years in self-exile on London, Serhiy Lechtchenko, an investigative journalist from Ukraine, and Assen Yordanov, a Bulgarian journalist who has been repeatedly threatened.

The profiles also include activists like María Pía Matta, who has worked for nearly ten years for the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), defending the freedom of community radio stations in Latin America.

Courage is the common denominator. In Uzbekistan, the authorities had no compunction about torturing Muhammad Bekzhanov to extract a confession. In Eritrea, ranked last in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index for the seventh year running, Dawit Isaac has languished in the dictator Issayas Afeworki’s jails for the past 13 years. Mazen Darwish, founder of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression and winner of the RWB press freedom prize in 2012, has been held for more than two years by the Assad regime.

When two gunmen burst into her political prisoner who was given home and terrified her mother, a three-year jail sentence in 2010 she reacted as she does to all for filming “without permission” threats – without fear. In 2013, while investigating a water the International Women’s Media shortage in Nat Mauk, in the Foundation gave her its Courage central Magway region. Released in Journalism Award. in a January 2012 amnesty, he went back to work at once. His journalistic dedication got him into trouble a few months later when he investigated a Japanese-funded scholarship programme in Magway. A local NAJIBA AYUBI education department official Afghanistan / Asia-Pacific filed a complaint accusing him of trespassing on government Journalist, activist and woman property and disturbing a civil – Najiba Ayubi has a lot of servant in the course of his handicaps in a country famed for duties. In April 2014, almost two its warlords. But the managing years after the complaint, Zaw director of The Killid Group – a Phay was sentenced to a year non-profit media network that in prison under articles 448 and includes two of the country’s ZAW PHAY 353 of the penal code. He is most popular magazines (Killid Burma / Asia-Pacific currently serving the sentence in Weekly and Mursal Weekly) and Thet prison. eight radio stations with a total of Zaw Phay is an experienced 12 million listeners – does not let journalist who started out as a herself be intimidated. When a clandestine video reporter for police chief told her, “You realize Democratic Voice of Burma you are a woman, don’t you,” she (now DVB Multimedia Group) responded by broadcasting the during the Saffron Revolution report he wanted to suppress. in 2007. He is also a former enforced disappearances, the Eritrea, hope of saving Isaac is recruitment of child soldiers, slim. The African Commission the failure to punish crimes on Human and Peoples’ Rights of violence and the infiltration began examining his case in of government services by 2013. paramilitary groups. Leading investigative journalist Claudia Duque has often found this to her cost since 2001, when she was kidnapped by officials with the Administrative Security Department (DAS), Colombia’s main intelligence agency. After ASSEN YORDANOV the DAS spied on her while Bulgaria / European union & pretending to protect her, she Balkans fled abroad from 2004 to 2006. Following her return, she and The news website Bivol.bg her 10-year-old daughter were (Buffalo) that Assen Yordanov the target of death threats in founded with Atanas Chobanov 2008, so she fled abroad again, in October 2010 quickly made returning later the same year. RODNEY SIEH a name for itself with exclusives She continues to report for Liberia / Africa about corruption, flaws in the Radio Nizkor, Latin America’s judicial system and collusion leading online human rights radio Rodney D. Sieh has seen a lot. between politicians and station. In Liberia during the terrible civil organized crime in Bulgaria. A war that began in 1989, where few months later, it became the he would cover massacres from official WikiLeaks partner for the front line for the Monrovia the publication of leaked US Daily News. In Gambia, where diplomatic cables about Bulgaria he sought refuge in 1992 and its Balkan neighbours. In and reported for his uncle the summer of 2011, Yordanov Kenneth Best’s Daily Observer began organizing courses for newspaper about the deaths and local journalists on protecting disappearances that followed communications against the Yahya Jammeh’s coup d’état. In phone tapping and hacking London, where he fled in 1994 that is often practiced by the to escape the man who is still Bulgarian authorities. The Gambia’s dictator. In the United site survives thanks to the States, where he garnered enthusiasm of its journalists journalism diplomas and worked and to fundraising initiatives. DAWIT ISAAC for many newspapers. And back Advertisers obviously steer clear Eritrea / Africa in Liberia, where he launched the of it because they fear upsetting country’s most popular and hard- the powerful people targeted by Is Dawit Isaac still alive? A hitting news website and then its investigative reporting. journalist, poet and naturalized newspaper, FrontPage Africa, Swedish citizen, he returned in 2005. It’s no surprise that its to serve “free Eritrea” and coverage of elite corruption and to launch Setit, a pro-reform social injustices have brought newspaper. But since his arrest him problems, including jail and in September 2001, he has a three-month ban in 2013. But been subjected to a slow death he’s used to it. in the burning hot containers used for holding prisoners in Eiraeiro, a detention centre in Northern Red Sea province. Held without a trial, without a lawyer and without the right to visits, like thousands of government opponents and dozens of other journalists, of whom at least four CLAUDIA DUQUE have died in detention, he is one Colombia / The Americas the countless victims of Issayas Afewerki’s monstrous regime, There’s no respite in Colombia which reigns with impunity. In the for those who try to cover deafening silence surrounding MARIYATH MOHAMED was Anouzla who, in July 2013, Maldives / Asia-Pacific revealed that a serial child rapist was among the 49 convicted Your sister has hanged herself Spaniards to get a royal pardon and we can help you do the under an agreement with Spain’s same.” This is the kind of threat King Juan Carlos. He has also that 29-year-old Mariyath criticized King Mohammed’s Mohammed gets in return lavish spending and long for her commitment to freely absences, and the corruption reported news. After a spell at among those around him. He HFM Radio, she joined Minivan says he is ready to pay the price News, one of Maldives’ few of fighting against “the wall of independent news websites, fear.” PETER JOHN JABAN in 2012. At a time of political Malaysia / Asia-Pacific turmoil, she set about shedding light on an explosive issue that Known by the pseudonym of all other media have carefully “Papa Orang Utan,” Peter John avoided – the growing influence Jaban is the voice of Radio of radical Islamist groups. During Free Sarawak, a London-based the first five months of 2013, shortwave radio station that she was constantly followed, broadcasts to local communities threatened and attacked – on in the jungles of the Malaysian one occasion by men armed with province of Sarawak, on the a steel bar. But her resolve is island of Borneo. A member unshaken. Her recent coverage of Sarawak’s Iban community, of the sentence of 100 lashes Jaban already defied the that was passed on a 15-year- authorities by turning his old girl shocked the international previous radio station into a community and led to the ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ forum for criticizing exploitation sentence being rescinded. Mexico / The Americas and expropriation of the native population by the associates Despite her father’s abduction of Sarawak’s billionaire chief and murder in December 2000, minister Taib Mahmud. Radio Anabel Hernández broke a Free Sarawak has to operate story the following year that clandestinely in Sarawak, led to a major investigation into where the authorities regard embezzlement at the highest it as “seditious,” jamming its level of government. Her broadcasts and hacking its coverage of this scandal, known website in an attempt to prevent as Toallagate, won her Mexico’s it from spreading its “lies” and National Journalism Award in “poisoning the spirit of the 2002. She went on to spend five people.” Since returning to years researching Los señores Sarawak in 2012, Jaban has del Narco, a book about the lived in constant fear of being complicity of politicians, military arrested but that doesn’t stop ALI ANOUZLA and businessmen in the drug him from commenting ironically: Morroco / MENA trade. It was a bestseller, with “I much appreciate the honour 100,000 copies sold in 2010, of this recognition, not least The editor of the Arabic-language but resulted in her having to be because it may be useful if I am version of the news website assigned police bodyguards. arrested.” Lakome, Ali Anouzla was However, the protection is far arrested in September 2013 from perfect: her family and just for posting a link to the blog home have been attacked twice of a journalist with the Spanish and some of her sources have daily El País that in turn had a been threatened, jailed or killed. link to a video in which Al-Qaeda Nowadays she reports for the in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) magazine Proceso and the online threatened Morocco. Although newspaper Reporte Indigo. released after five weeks, he still faces up to 20 years in prison under Morocco’s anti- terrorism law. One more judicial headache for a journalist who has specialized in criticizing King Mohammed and his regime. It Human rights lawyer Mazen under President Idriss Déby and Darwish’s voice ceased to be moved to the German city of heard more than two years ago Bonn, where has resumed his in the Syrian hell that has already professional relationship with consumed more than 150,000 Deutsche Welle. lives. He and his two assistants at the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), Hussein Ghareer and Hani Al-Zitani, are being held on terrorism charges because of their peaceful commitment to freedom of expression and MUHAMMAD BEKJANOV information. Subjected to torture, Uzbekistan / Eastern Europe mistreatment and denial of and Central Asia medical attention since their arrest on 16 February 2012, they Muhammad Bekzhanov is one are now being held in the central of the world’s longest held Damascus prison pending trial. journalists. Until he had to flee Winner of the Reporters Without abroad in 1994, he edited Erk Borders Press Freedom Prize in ISMAIL SAYMAZ (Freedom), a newspaper that 2012, Darwish had already been Turkey / Eastern Europe and was President Islam Karimov’s arrested by Bashar Al-Assad’s Central Asia leading media critic. After the police three times in the past. government blaming a series of But, as he said at the time, “no A reporter for the newspaper bombings in Tashkent in 1999 prison is big enough to contain Radikal, Ismail Saymaz was on pro-democracy groups as free speech.” covering a nationwide wave of well as armed Islamists, it got demonstrations in the summer the Ukrainian authorities to of 2013 when he found proof extradite him back to Uzbekistan, that it was shopkeepers and where he was tortured into plainclothes policemen who signing a “confession” and was had beaten a young protester sentenced to 15 years in prison. to death in the western city of When an Islamist militant said Eskisehir. As a result, he was he was tortured into implicating threatened by the local prefect, Bekzhanov, the authorities who had said he could have “reduced” Bekzhanov’s jail term been killed by other protesters. to 13 years. But in January 2012, Saymaz is used to such threats. just days before he was due to His articles and books have be freed, he was given another tackled all the most sensitive four years and eight months in subjects, including the “deep jail on a charge of disobeying state,” the Ergenekon conspiracy prison officials. According to ERIC TOPONA and political manipulation of the recent reports, he is now in a Tchad / Africa judicial system. He has been grim prison in the southern city of sued around 20 times and has Kasan, deaf in one ear as a result On 3 May 2013, World Press been the target of virulent verbal of mistreatment and suffering Freedom Day, radio journalist attacks by government officials from tuberculosis. and human rights defender Eric and the far right. Despite a lively Topona said media freedom was media landscape, independent beginning to become a reality journalism in Turkey needs a in Chad. But, three days later, vocation. At least 131 journalists he was arrested in a roundup have been fired or forced to of journalists and government resign in 2013 and at least 13 opponents and spent more than are being held in connection with 100 days in prison awaiting trial. their reporting. Some have been The conditions in the prison held for several years. were “atrocious,” he reported afterwards. He finally got a three- year suspended jail sentence for “threatening constitutional order” and initially resumed his journalistic work on his release. But, in December 2013, he MAZEN DARWISH realized he could no longer Syria / MENA continue working as a journalist DANISH KAROKHEL Despertar, in February this shockwaves around the world. Afghanistan / Asia-Pacific year. It all began when the The investigation was the result journalist went past a police of a joint effort by journalists Promoting human rights, calling station in a suburb of Luanda working in 46 different countries, the government and elites when he heard calls for help coordinated by the International to account and encouraging from detainees in the cells. Consortium of Investigate participation in public life – these Having tried unsuccessfully Journalists which Lyle heads. are the three pillars of Pajhwok to obtain information from the Today he is the driving force Afghan News, the independent police officers, he recorded the behind a type of journalism that news agency that Danish prisoners’ calls and broadcast crosses borders and language Karokhel created ten years ago. them on his station’s airwaves. barriers, and he embodies the Under his leadership, PAN’s They were asking for medical future of investigative journalism Kabul headquarters and its assistance for a fellow prisoner worldwide. eight regional bureaux produce who was dying of tuberculosis an average of 40 dispatches a in an overcrowded cell. Chiluvia day in Pashto, Dari and English. was immediately arrested and JULIAN ASSANGE “Reports that are accurate, brought before a judge who Australia / Asia-Pacific timely, balanced, correctly gave him a six-month suspended sourced and corroborated and sentence for defamation, Julian Assange divides relevant to their public,” his article offending the police and working opinion – some see him as of faith says. This is a challenge illegally as a journalist. That is an advocate of transparency, in any country but, even amid the price paid by a journalist in others as a terrorist. The Afghanistan’s chaos, Karokhel is Angola for using the media to reports published by WikiLeaks, up to the task. try to save a life. Chiluvia is still created by Assange in 2006 involved with Despertar radio, and specialising in leaking an essential counterweight in government documents, have ALI DILEM a country where freedom of made him an enemy of the Algérie / MENA speech can be easily denied. US government. In its War Logs, comprising hundreds of Ali Dilem knows only too well that thousands of US documents it’s not easy to be a cartoonist in GERARD RYLE about Afghanistan and the war in Algeria. He has long worked in Australia / Asia-Pacific Iraq, WikiLeaks discloses human difficult circumstances, drawing rights abuses by the US army political cartoons for the Algerian It all begins with a revolutionary under the Bush administration. daily newspaper Liberté and the pill that you dissolve in the tank Among them are photos of TV5 program Monde Kiosque. of your car, which was supposed the deaths of two Reuters He has regularly received death to reduce fuel consumption and journalists killed by US troops in threats and has spent nine years cut exhaust emissions to zero. It Kabul. In forcing governments in prison after being tried for set off a gold rush. The Australian to face their responsibilities by defamation. In 2001, he had company that claimed to market publishing such embarrassing the dubious honour of seeing it raised more than 100 million information, Assange has his name attached to a series dollars. The scam was exposed become a symbolic victim of a of amendments to the Algerian by the Australian investigative system that too easily confuses criminal code that provide for journalist, Gerard Ryle. During journalism with terrorism. Holed prison sentences of up to a year his investigation he ran into the up in the Ecuadorean embassy for journalists. However, Dilem tax haven secrecy of the British in London since August 2012, never gave up. His drawings Virgin Islands. At the time, he Assange says he believes in the have won some 20 international did not realize that he would be transparency of the state but not prizes including the 2005 Press the one to break the secrecy. in the transparency of individuals. Freedom Trophy awarded by Soon after the results of his France’s Limousin Press Club work were published, in summer and Reporters Without Borders. 2011, the journalist received a He was also appointed Chevalier mysterious package. It contained des Arts et des Lettres in 2010. a hard disk containing 2.5 million files going back some 30 years and tracking the histories QUEIRÓS ANASTÁCIO of offshore accounts of nearly CHILUVIA 130,000 people living in 170 Angola / AAfrica countries. It was a huge quantity of data, 170 times bigger than Working illegally as a journalist the release by WikiLeaks of was among the charges brought diplomatic cables, known as against Queirós Anastácio Cablegate, Two years later, in Chiluvia, news director of 2013, Offshore Leaks was finally the opposition radio station published, sending political GANIMAT ZAHID Project. The personal risk is December 2012 for supposedly Azerbaijan / Eastern Europe considerable. In 2012 and 2013 “storming” a police station on the and Central Asia she was the target of a smear small island of Sitra, in Bahrain, campaign and blackmail attempt although he was not there at Ganimat Zahid, who has using explicit video footage. In the time of the incident. This already served two years and February this year, there was a well-known photographer has a half in prison on a ridiculous change of tactics and she was languished in a cell ever since, pretext, knows that freedom is accused of spying. According subjected to death threats and hard-fought. The newspaper to the public prosecutor who psychological torture. No doctor he runs, Azadliq (“freedom” questioned her for three days in has been allowed to examine in Azeri), is one of the last succession, she was alleged to him. He was given a 10-year remaining opposition titles still have passed on state secrets jail sentence on 26 March standing in a ravaged media to the US Congress. However, 2014 – no doubt to show that landscape. Squeezed by fines it would take more than that Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and deprived of income by the to persuade her to call off her has regained full control of the press distribution monopoly, it is investigations. country and its media since the struggling to survive. However, brutally repressed protests of the fight itself was not the be-all 2011. and end-all for Zahid. In 2012 MALAHAT NASIBOVA he undertook to break the wall Azerbaijan / Eastern Europe of censorship that prevailed and Central Asia ALI ABDULEMAM in Azerbaijan’s broadcast Bahrain / MENA media. With few resources he When journalists began launched the television program interviewing the relatives of a Ali Abdulemam is a pioneer. “Azerbaijan Hour” which is man found dead at the local In 1999, he created Bahrain broadcast by satellite for a few office of the Ministry of National Online, his country’s first pro- hours every week from abroad. Security (MNS) in the isolated democracy forum and a very The transmission was jammed region of Nakhchivan in August popular one. For his pains, and kicked off the satellite which 2011, MNS officers intervened, he was arrested, beaten and first relayed it but, undeterred, grabbing at their microphones tortured several times for Zahid managed to relaunch it. and cameras. One of the “publishing false information.” He Since then, he has stayed away reporters, Malahat Nasibova of was released for the last time on from Azerbaijan for the time the independent news agency 23 February 2011, a week after being. The threats that made him Turan, was branded an “enemy a “Day of Anger” began a series decide to take his family out of of the people.” It was just the of peaceful protests in Manama the country seem unlikely to end start. She received many death that ended up being crushed soon. threats in the following weeks violently. A wary person, he fled because of her obstinacy in just before the police came to KHADIJA ISMAÏLOVA pursuing the story. Exposed to all his home to arrest him again. Azerbaijan / Eastern Europe kinds of harassment during 15 In June 2011, a military court and Central Asia years of fighting for freedom of sentenced him in absentia to 15 information, she has never been years on charges of conspiracy Sentenced last year to sweep deterred. In a region known as and participating in an attempted the streets for taking part in an “Azerbaijan’s North Korea” for its coup d’état. He now lives in exile unauthorized demonstration, repression and lack of pluralism, in the United Kingdom, where he investigative journalist Khadija she tackles any subject head- continues his fight. Ismayilova said with a smile she on including corruption, human would be “cleaning this country rights violations, public health of filth”, something she was quite issues and electoral fraud. She ASIF MOHIUDDIN used to. Ismayilova is known for also pursues all these issues Bangladesh / Asia-Pacific her in-depth investigations into through the Resources Centre corruption at the highest levels for Democracy and NGO “They wanted to take me to of government. These include Development, which she created the town centre of Motijheel the presidential clan’s hold on in 2002. for a public lynching.” “They” the most profitable sectors of are activists of Hefazat-e-Islam, the economy and its investments a coalition of fundamentalist in tax havens. A former head of AHMED HUMEIDAN madrasas supported by the the Azerbaijani service of Radio Bahrain / MENA Jamaat-e-Islami party. In May Free Europe / Radio Liberty, she 2013, a million of them gathered works with a number of news Accusing a journalist of in the centre of the Bangladeshi organizations and her activities attacking a police station is capital, Dhaka, to call for the also extend to the international unprecedented. But that’s what death penalty for atheist and investigative journalism happened to the 26-year-old secular bloggers, who include consortium, the Organized photographer Ahmed Humeidan. the blogger Asif Mohiuddin. Big Crime and Corruption Reporting He was arrested on 29 rewards were offered for anyone who would behead them. autumn for “good behaviour”. bimonthly that he writes and Through his articles on religious As a gesture of defiance, the distributes on the streets of fundamentalism, education journalist took advantage of this Belém, in the northern state of policy, religious institutions, to travel to Warsaw to launch his Pará. Trained as a sociologist the oppression of women and scathing book about the rise to and stubborn journalist by the sharia, Mohiuddin evolved power and reign of Lukashenko conviction, he stormed out of from free thinker to public entitled “The Belarus System”. the daily O Liberal in 1987 enemy number one. He has when it refused to print his been stabbed by extremists investigative piece on the and detained several times ZHANNA LITVINA implication of two businessmen by the authorities over his Belarus / Eastern Europe and in a parliamentarian’s murder. “blasphemous” blog posts. His Central Asia After exposing O Liberal’s murky blog has been censored and finances in 2005, he was beaten he could face up to 14 years The name Zhanna Litvina is up by the owner’s son and then in prison. However, he has not familiar among the independent the courts prevented him from given up the fight. In exile for journalists still left in Belarus. following their trial on tax evasion the moment, he is continuing his The Belarus Association of charges. But death threats and mission to inform the public. Journalists (BAJ), which she more than 30 lawsuits have not founded in 1995, has provided stopped him from continuing critical support, such as legal to write about drug trafficking, ANDRZEJ POCZOBUT assistance, documentation deforestation and corruption. Belarus / Eastern Europe and of press freedom violations, Central Asia vocational training, advocacy for legislative reform, in the face of HASSAN RUVAKUKI Describing Alexander daily abuses by “Europe’s last Burundi / Africa Lukashenko as a dictator is dictatorship”. The BAJ’s tireless risky. In the past decade some struggle has earned it numerous Hassan Ruvakuki is among 10 people have received jail awards, including the European those journalists who are not sentences for insulting the Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, and afraid to get close to the story. Belarussian head of state in this Litvina is its perfect incarnation. He works as a correspondent way. However, it is a matter of She was editor at a state radio for the Swahili service of Radio principle for Andrzej Poczobut to station during the years of France Internationale and as call a spade a spade. Between perestroika in the Soviet Union a reporter for the local station 2011 and 2012, the life of the and set a new, liberal tone. The Bonesha FM. In November Belarussian journalist, an ethnic station was closed down on the 2011, he took it upon himself Pole, has been punctuated by eve of the presidential election to cover the formation of a new arrests, raids and summonses. in 1995, which swept Alexander Burundian rebel group. He was The authorities accused him of Lukashenko to power. Litvina subsequently accused by the taking part in pro-democracy then launched her own privately authorities of being a member of protests in December 2010 owned radio station, and when the group and was sentenced which he was covering, and he this, too, was taken off air, she to life imprisonment for was first fined then imprisoned began broadcasting from Poland. “participating in terrorist activity”. for two weeks. During Being president of the BAJ is no His sentence was reduced to questioning he was beaten easy matter. In an atmosphere of three years on appeal and the and his credentials were later growing repression, Litvina was charge was downgraded to seized. However, he continues the target of a smear campaign “participating in an association to criticize the government in his on state television in February formed with the aim of attacking stories for the Polish newspaper 2012. In the ensuing months, persons and property” after he Gazeta Wyborcza, as well as on she was banned from leaving won support from civil society independent Belarussian news the country. However, the BAJ organizations, African news sites and in his own blog. He pursued its unequal struggle. organizations and international was remanded in custody for Today it has more than 1,000 NGOs including Reporters three months before being given members and five regional Without Borders. In March last a suspended three-year prison branches, as well as its head year he was released on parole sentence for defamation in July office in Minsk. after spending 15 months in 2011. He was arrested again the prison. The name of this hero following year for writing columns of the press has not yet been criticizing the government’s LÚCIO FLÁVIO PINTO officially cleared. response to the bombing on the Brazil / The Americas Minsk metro. He was cleared of these charges in March 2013 For more than 25 years, Lúcio but his suspended sentence Flávio Pinto has been the one- remained in effect and he was man editorial team of Jornal banned from leaving the country Pessoal (Personal Newspaper), until the sentence was lifted last a fearless, ad-less 12-page OUDOM TAT international president of the for victims throughout China. Cambodia / Asia-Pacific AMARC in 2010 and helps to Seven of the site’s contributors develop the right to information are currently detained and Oudom Tat has taken an interest and promote dialogue between Huang himself is the target of a in journalism and photography civil society and governments. new investigation orchestrated ever since he was a boy by the Beijing public security delivering newspapers in Phnom department. But, despite close Penh. After working for an NGO, MIREYA MANQUEPILLÁN surveillance, he continues to he became a fixer for foreign HUANQUIL work tirelessly to bring justice to reporters, especially those who Chile / The Americas his compatriots. wanted to cover land conflicts in the capital and provinces. A member of the Mapuche In 2011, he joined Voice of indigenous community, LI JIANJUN Democracy, one of the few like 4 per cent of Chileans, China / Asia-Pacific independent radio stations that Mireya Manquepillán has dare to criticize the government. been prosecuted for using an For the past 10 years, Li Jianjun Working as a photojournalist, unauthorized frequency as the has been waging a battle against he covered many sensitive manager of Kimche Mapu, corruption in China. Li, 36, began stories that the government a community radio station working as an investigative would rather conceal, such covering the Los Rios region, journalist in his home province as conditions for workers in 800 km south of Santiago. She of Shanxi in the north of the Cambodia’s key garment sector, testified to the UN Committee country, where he exposed cases protests by people evicted from on the Elimination of Racial of corruption in the police. He their land, or campaigns for Discrimination in August 2013 was sacked in 2011 but didn’t land rights. As a result of his that her case reflected the plight back down. Between 2012 and reporting and dedication, he has of indigenous communities in 2013, he took on the head of been threatened and attacked Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, the state-owned conglomerate repeatedly since the start of Guatemala and Mexico. The China Resources Holdings Co, 2013, both by unidentified men Chilean government immediately Song Lin. Despite death threats in civilian dress and government announced an indigenous and kidnap attempts, Li even officials. Despite the danger, he broadcasting plan for 2014-16. took a minority shareholding is more determined than ever to But the promised creation of 30 in the company as part of his promote justice and human rights new radio stations, 10 million investigation. In April 2013, in Cambodia. pesos (15,000 euros) in funding he highlighted irregularities and a pilot project with Kimche in contracts signed between Mapu have yet to materialize. China Resources Holdings Co MARÍA PÍA MATTA “It was just an announcement and three mining companies in Chile / The Americas to make an impact, and nothing Shanxi. “They must go down more,” Mireya said. and go to jail,” Li has said. “Only María Pía Matta is a campaigner then could I feel safe, and I for the rights of women and would be making a big service indigenous groups and for more HUANG QI for public interests as well.” than 20 years has personified the China / Asia-Pacific Following an investigation by the independent station Radio Tierra, Party’s Central Commission for which broadcasts from Santiago Creator of China’s first human Discipline Inspection, Song Lin with the goal of strengthening rights news website in 1998 and was removed from office on April social dialogue among local winner of the Reporters Without 19. communities. In 2003 she was Borders Cyber-Freedom Prize in appointed Vice-President of 2004, Huang Qi has spent eight the South American branch of the past 14 years in prison. He of the World Association of was jailed in 2000 for “inciting Community Radio Broadcasters subversion” and again in 2008 (AMARC). She carries out fact- on a charge of “possessing state finding missions on freedom secrets”, for gathering information of expression in areas of to help parents of the victims conflict in Colombia, Haiti and of the Sichuan earthquake. Venezuela. In Chile, she does With the help of thousands of similar work in areas dominated volunteers, his 64tianwang.com by traditional Mapuche culture. website has done extraordinary Her commitment has made her a work over the past 16 years, pioneer campaigner on behalf of publishing information about tens community radio and TV stations, of thousands of human rights which have become beacons violations and helping to win at of freedom of expression in least 10 billion yuan (more than South America. Matta became a billion euros) in compensation LIU HU who are holding him in secret. MAYDANEH ABDALLAH China / Asia-Pacific His family have had no news of OKIEH him since September 2012. Djibouti / Africa Police stormed into the home of Liu Hu, a journalist with the Maydaneh Abdallah Okieh is Guangzhou-based Modern ANGEL SANTIESTEBAN- one of the mainstays of the Express daily, on 24 August PRATZ first independent radio station 2013, took him off to Beijing, and Cuba / The Americas in Djibouti’s recent history, La put him in Detention Centre No. Voix de Djibouti. He is reporter, 1, which is usually reserved for His blog is called “Los hijos interviewer and editor of its the most dangerous criminals. que nadie quiso” (The children website and the government of After 37 days, the maximum for no one wanted). The writer and President Ismail Omar Guelleh provisional detention, he was netizen Ángel Santiesteban-Prats has had him in its sights on many formally charged with defamation, has been held for more than a occasions. He was jailed three his bail request was rejected and year for openly criticizing the times between March last year one of his lawyers was placed “dictator” Raúl Castro, as he and March this year, held each under disciplinary investigation calls him. Convicted on trumped- time in Gabode central prison. for posting documents linked to up charges of “home violation” He was accused of posting the case online. The reason for and “injuries” in a summary trial images of police violence on his this nightmarish scenario? Liu on 8 December 2012, he was Facebook page and of covering had posted information about sentenced to five years in prison. an opposition demonstration, embezzlement by a local official, In April 2013, he was transferred both of which enshrine the right Ma Zhengqi, on his personal to a prison in the Havana suburb of the public to be informed page on the Weibo social of San Miguel del Padrón but which annoyed the Djibouti network because he knew that where he has been subjected to dictatorship. Despite being ill- censorship would prevent its mistreatment and acts of torture. treated in prison, he was refused publication in the newspaper. His novel “El verano en que Dios access to a doctor several times. This was too much for the party. dormía” (The summer God slept) For the time being he is free, but What with the information Liu received the 2013 Franz Kafka who knows what tomorrow may had already posted on Weibo Drawer Novel Prize, awarded in bring. about other cases, including Prague to unpublished Cuban the president of the Shanghai novels. supreme court and the head of the Shaanxi province public security department, he was now YOANI SANCHEZ a menace to be silenced at once. Cuba / The Americas

A philologist by training, Yoani JIGME GYATSO Sánchez is a celebrity in her Tibet / Asia-Pacific own country and internationally. Time Magazine ranked her as Jigme Gyatso, also known as one of the world’s 100 most Golog Jigme, is a Buddhist influential people in 2008. Her monk and human rights activist Generación Y blog, launched in who found fame with the film 2007 with the aim of “helping to “Leaving Fear Behind” which he build a plural Cuba,” covers the made with the farmer and film- economic and social problems maker Dhondup Wangchen. The that ordinary Cubans constantly powerful 25-minute documentary face. Like other bloggers, she consists of interviews with 108 has been subjected to varied ordinary Tibetans and had a insults (such as “contemptible secret screening in Beijing on parasites”), intermittent blocking the opening day of the Olympic and judicial harassment. In Games in 2008 before being early 2014, she announced shown throughout the world. her intention to create an Jigme Gyatso was immediately independent collective media arrested, sentenced to seven platform in Cuba. “The worst months’ imprisonment, then could happen on the first day, beaten and tortured. He was but perhaps we will sow the first released in October 2008. seeds of a free press in Cuba,” However, in 2012 Jigme Gyatso, she said. described by fellow Tibetans as “monk of moral integrity and a sincere social worker”, was seized again by the authorities, WALEED AL-SHEHHI silence in response to this attack journalists to die in detention, is United Arab Emirates / MENA on the safety, security and dignity now playing dangerously with of journalists.” Twelve journalists this journalist’s life. A sentence of two years in prison have been killed in Egypt since and a fine of 500,000 dirhams 2011 and more than 20 are (100,000 euros) – Waleed currently detained. GORKA LANDÁBURU Al-Shehhi, a netizen based Spain / European union & in Ajman, in the United Arab Balkans Emirates, has paid dearly for a BINIAM SIMON few tweets about the trial of 94 Eritrea / Africa On 15 May 2001, the journalist Emiratis, most of whom were Gorka Landáburu received a convicted of endangering the Biniam Simon was a government package at his home in Zarauz, country’s security for having links TV presenter in Eritrea, a little- a town in Spain’s northern with an Islamist organization. known corner of the Horn of Basque Country. It appeared to Arrested in May 2013, Shehhi Africa that may have become one have been sent by a business was convicted under the of the world’s worst dictatorships association. When he opened UAE’s cyber-crime law, which under Issayas Afewerki. Around it, 150 grams of Titadine, a forbids the use of information 10,000 political prisoners, compressed dynamite used technology for activities “harming including some 30 journalists, in mining and by the Basque the reputation of the state.” are held in terrible conditions armed separatist group ETA for His crime was informing the and many have died in detention. its bombs, exploded in his face. general public about this trial, Simon fled to France and, He will bear the marks for the from which the international since 2009, has presented rest of his life. In its communiqué media were excluded, and about Radio Erena (Our Eritrea), claiming the attack, ETA called the torture of the detainees. a Paris-based radio station him a “txakurra de la pluma,” Shehhi was himself mistreated that broadcasts to Eritrea by meaning a dog in the service of and repeatedly threatened with satellite, shortwavesj and online the Spanish government. When physical torture. (although less than 4 percent of those responsible were tried ten the population has an Internet years later, Landáburu testified connection). Using a network of in court: “I am a journalist. You ABEER SAADY correspondents of unparalleled destroyed my hands. My left Egypt / MENA courage, he provides reliable and eye no longer sees anything. independently reported news, Scars cover my body. But you Well known in the Egyptian despite intermittent jamming. His failed because you did not cut media, Abeer Saady has been listeners know that, by listening my tongue out.” Long protected writing constantly in Arabic and to the station, they risk ending up by bodyguards, he is now the English on the most important in the hell of Eritrea’s jails. editor of the Madrid-based news subjects for the past 23 years. weekly Cambio 16. Whether at the Libyan war front or on the streets of Cairo, YIRGALEM FISSEHA she seems to be everywhere. MEBRAHTU Hundreds of journalists Eritrea / Africa throughout the Middle East know her, as she has given safety Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu is training to journalists working one of the few women to have in hostile areas in Egypt, Libya, entered what is the dangerous Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, profession of journalism in Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain and Eritrea. After the government elsewhere. As well as being closed all independent media deputy editor of the daily Al- in 2001, she worked for radio Akhbar, she has been elected Bana until the authorities raided vice-president and member of the it in February 2009, arrested all board of the Egyptian Journalists the staff and took them to Adi Syndicate for three terms, and Abeito military prison. She has ran its training department, now spent more than five years hosting seminars and training in May Srwa prison, where she sessions. But now she has had has been subjected to inhuman enough. Publicly criticizing the conditions, including an entire union’s silence in the face of all year in solitary confinement, the arrests, violence and murders and is in very poor health. She targeting journalists, she has has been hospitalized three announced that she is freezing times without her family being her involvement. She urged informed. President Issayas her colleagues to consider the Afeworki’s government, which “catastrophic ramifications of has already allowed at least four REYOT ALEMU ILEANA ALAMILLA DINA MEZA Ethiopia / Africa Guatemala / The Americas Honduras / The Americas

It was in Addis Ababa’s appalling A lawyer by training and Presenter of the radio Kality prison that Reyot Alemu journalist by vocation, Ileana programme “Voces contra learned that she had won the Alamilla fled Guatemala in 1979 el Olvido” (Voices against 2013 UNESCO world press and did not return until 1998, Forgetting) and editor of the freedom prize. She has been spending almost 20 years in Defensores en Linea website, there since June 2011 serving exile in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dina Meza has been spied on, a 14-year sentence (later Salvador and Mexico. It was in followed and threatened with reduced to five) on a charge of exile in 1983 that she founded violence and death almost “participating in, promoting and Cerigua (Centro de Reportes without interruption for the past communicating a terrorist act.” Informativos Sobre Guatemala) eight years, and had to flee A columnist on political and to “break through Guatemala’s abroad for several months in social issues for the national international isolation and draw 2013. Her country is a living weekly Fitih, she is one of the attention to the terror and crimes hell for journalists. Fourteen many journalists and government against its population.” As such, have been killed with complete opponents who have been she supported the 1996 peace impunity in the past ten years, convicted on terrorism charges. accords that ended a 36- 13 of them since the June 2009 A colleague remembers seeing year civil war. She campaigns coup d’état. Subjects such as her leave the Addis Ababa for the creation of a national human rights violations, mining lawcourts, proudly clutching system to protect journalists or the “purge” of the police seem copies of her articles as evidence and, through Cerigua, has been to result in automatic reprisals. of her work. She has been let out condemning an unprecedented Meza also covers the equally of prison once, for an operation wave of violence against media sensitive subject of agrarian to a malign tumour, but was sent personnel. conflicts. “Am I afraid?” she says. back to her cell immediately “My biggest problem is that I am afterwards, with no chance of afraid of doing nothing and my convalescing in fresh air. GOTSON PIERRE children need a different country.” Haiti / The Americas

DINA DASKALOPOULOU After the 2012 earthquake, ITSMANIA PINEDA PLATERO Greece / European union & Haitian journalist and PR Honduras / The Americas Balkans consultant Gotson Pierre realized his main priority should The founder of Xibalba Arte y There was a national and be to compensate for the lack Cultura, an NGO specializing international outcry when the of news and information. The in the causes of crime and three TV stations operated disaster devastated the country, rehabilitating young offenders, by Elliniki Radiofonía destroying the homes of more the journalist Itsmania Pineda Tileórasi (ERT), Greece’s than 1.5 million Haitians who is constantly threatened online public broadcaster, stopped were forced to find shelter (“We’re going to dismember broadcasting at 10:11 p.m. in survivor camps dotted you alive, you slut!”), her email on 11 June 2013. There was throughout the capital, Port- and blog have been hacked, also a big response from Oi au-Prince. The day after the she has been prevented from Ergazomenoi (The Workers), tremor, Pierre set up a mobile moving about freely and she a self-managed “strike Telecentre among the ruins for has had to close the office of newspaper” that emerged from those who had been displaced. her NGO. Each time, she filed the collapse of the leading daily Equipped with a dozen Web- a report with the police but Eleftheriotypia (Free Press) in connected computers, it tours nothing has been done although 2012 and now has a print run the capital’s six survivor camps the police were told to provide of about 10,000 copies. Dina every day. The Telecentre is an her with protection. As part Daskalopoulou, who works oasis for exchanging information of the ongoing “purge” of the for the same salary as all of amid a ruined infrastructure and Honduran police, two senior its employees including the media. It is used for exchanging officers responsible for her managing editor (800 euros information about victims of protection were relieved of her a month), strayed from her the quake, its aftermath and duties and a third was murdered usual stories – prostitution and the distribution of humanitarian shortly thereafter. Responsibility the conditions of immigrant aid. It has also been a means of for her protection then fell to a women – to provide detailed introducing many Haitians to new junior officer she had previously coverage of this major attack technology. accused of criminal activity! on media pluralism, although she acknowledges that “ERT was Greece’s most corrupt and dysfunctional entity.” TONGAM RINA silent until 2040. When a Tehran that the journalist and blogger India / Asia-Pacific court convicted her in 2010 Siamak Qaderi received in of “anti-system propaganda” January 2011 after being fired Not even bullets can silence and “insulting the president,” it by the government news agency Tongam Rina --- in July 2012 sentenced her to a year in prison IRNA. He was convicted of she received one in the stomach and a 30-year ban on journalistic using his blog to disseminate which grazed her spinal cord. work. The first part of the anti-government propaganda and A gunman and his accomplices sentence began when she went false information “liable to disrupt waited for her at the entrance to to prison in 2012 and the second public order.” His crime was not the Arunachal Times in Itanagal, part when she was freed in just investigating the everyday the capital of Arunachal Pradesh 2013. That wasn’t her first brush lives of his fellow citizens and state. Almost 2 years later, the with prison. After being arrested criticizing government policies. man assumed to be behind the at an International Women’s Above all, it was interviewing attack was arrested and later Day meeting on 8 March 2009, gays and posting the results released. The reason invoked, she spent a week blindfolded in of his interviews on his blog. but never confirmed: Rina, the Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, an Because, since President newspaper’s associate editor, experience on which she based Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s famous had not highlighted him and a book published abroad. She comment during a visit to the his activities in her paper. Now is also used to being silenced, United States in September recovered from her injuries, having spent her career leaving 2007, everyone knows that “there she continues her fight against one newspapers after it was are no homosexuals in Iran.” endemic corruption and against closed by the authorities to go to the 150 dam projects in the work for another one that would pipeline in the border region. soon be closed. “I wonder how AMIRA HASS many people in the world are Israel/ MENA interested in my work, my people ADNAN HASSANPOUR and my country,” she asks. Amira Hass is the only Jewish Iran / MENA Israeli journalist to have lived among the Palestinians in Gaza The “dean” of Iran’s imprisoned SAID MATINPOUR and Ramallah since 1993. She journalists, Adnan Hassanpour Iran / MENA thinks it is as necessary as was the editor of Asou (Horizon), “covering Britain from London, a now closed weekly, in Marivan, Said Matinpour, a journalist and France from Paris.” Her in a western region where most with the weekly Azeri-language reports for the Israeli daily of the population is Kurdish. newspaper Yarpagh, is among Ha’aretz, which she says A Marivan revolutionary court the media workers who have «cannot be objective, just as any sentenced him to death in spent the longest time in the jails reporting about wrong-doing 2007 on charges of spying, of Iran. A Tehran revolutionary cannot be objective,» have won separatist propaganda and court sentenced him to eight her enemies in all camps. Forced subversive activities against years’ imprisonment in 2009 for by Hamas to leave Gaza earlier national security. Thanks to anti-government propaganda than planned, in 2008, (though his lawyer, and international and «maintaining relations with permitted to return two months pressure, the supreme court foreigners». Two years earlier, he later) she was detained in Israel overturned the death sentence was detained in the notorious twice (in 2008 and 2009) for in 2008 after deciding he could Evin prison and was released entering Gaza without a permit not be regarded as mohareb (an nine months later after the and staying in an «enemy entity.” enemy of God). When retried, payment of an exorbitant fine of In 2013, the Yesha Council (of he was finally sentenced to 15 500,000 euros. Matinpour has settlers in “Judea, Samaria and years in prison in 2009. He is suffered health problems as a Gaza”) accused her of inciting in poor health and, according result of the first term he served violence because she had to the latest news, he has been in Evin. Deprived of his freedom written that Palestinians had the sent to Zahedan prison in the and denied medical treatment, he right to resist and had grounds northeastern province of Sistan. wages a daily battle for his rights for throwing stones. She was So now he is serving a double and those of the other prisoners awarded the Reporters Without sentence – imprisonment and and has become a leading figure Borders/FNAC Prize in 2009 for exile. in the fight against the deplorable her independent and outspoken conditions in which prisoners of journalism and, in particular, conscience are held. the quality of her reporting for JILA BANI YAGHOOB Ha’aretz during and immediately Iran / MENA after Israel’s Operation Cast SIAMAK QADERI Lead offensive against the Jila Bani Yaghoob, a journalist Iran / MENA Gaza Strip in December 2008 who runs the Kanoon Zanan and January 2009. Accepting Irani (Centre for Iranian Women) Four years in prison and 60 the award, she said: “Being an website, is supposed to remain lashes. That’s the sentence independent journalist is not that hard in Israel but for year entitled I Complici (The Nedelia. He narrowly survived an this independence to be real Accomplices), about the close apparent murder attempt outside and effective, two conditions are links between politicians and his apartment on the night of needed. A newspaper ready to mafiosi. He has never been 19 April 2012, when he was publish the articles and readers. alone since then. He and his beaten, repeatedly stabbed and I was lucky to have a newspaper, wife have a permanent police shot with an air-pistol. This attack Ha’aretz, ready to publish, escort. But the death threats and had been preceded by many and the support of my editors, his presence on Cosa Nostra’s intimidation attempts, including a especially the news editor. But blacklist have not intimidated him. series of lawsuits with demands Israeli readers find it hard to He still lives in Palermo and had for astronomic damages. Winner accept a different version of another book published last year of the Peter Mackler Award events from what the authorities entitled Fimmine ribelli, about for Courageous and Ethical offer.” the “rebel women” who resist Journalism in October 2012, Calabria’s feared ‘Ndrangheta. he is now Uralskaya Nedelia’s editor. GIUSEPPE MANIACI Italy / European union & YU TERASAWA Balkans Japan / Asia-Pacific SARDAR MUHAMMAD Iraqi Kurdistan / MENA Giuseppe “Pino” Maniaci runs Yu Terasawa has few friends in Telejato, a small “anti-mafia the Japanese police. He was still Sardar Muhammad is a pioneer TV station,” from an apartment a student when he began his of independent journalism in Iraqi in Partinico, a suburb of the career in journalism by exposing Kurdistan. He worked for the very Sicilian capital of Palermo. A police corruption. More than 20 first independent newspaper in former building contractor, he years later, about 100 agents the autonomous region, Hawlati, was prosecuted in 2009 on a and officers have been fired, founded in 2000, and he was charge of working illegally as a prosecuted or subjected to among those who launched the journalist, and won the case by disciplinary action as a result of newspaper Awene in January invoking the constitutional right the countless articles and books 2006, of which he is now the to freely express his opinions. he has written on the subject. editor. The paper has become He has been sued hundreds of In 2006 a film entitled “Pochi an institution in the region and times and repeatedly threatened, no Kokuhaku” (“Confessions of its journalists are forced to wage and was once beaten up by a Dog”) based on his writings a daily battle to ensure their a mafia boss’s son. Since was released. Naturally, that got independence and safety. One moving his community TV him into trouble. “I was beaten, of the paper’s contributors, Kawa station online, he broadcasts for followed, robbed, arrested Germyani, was murdered last two hours a day, covering the without a warrant,” he said. At the December in Sulaymaniyah, the murders and racketeering that same time, he also took on that third journalist to be murdered are a part of Sicily’s everyday most Japanese of institutions, in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2008. life. The station’s future is Kisha Clubs, associations of Despite the climate of violence, assured because all of his newspapers companies and Tv Muhammad and his staff battle family participate, including stations with exclusive – and every day to make freedom of his daughter Letizia, who has often complicit – access to press information in Iraqi Kurdistan a received a young journalist’s conferences and official sources. reality. award. “To be a journalist in Even among his own colleagues, Sicily, you need balls of steel, not not everyone is a friend… On a press card,” he says. 28 March this year, he launched legal proceedings against the government after a law on state LIRIO ABBATE secrets was introduced, a major Italy / European union & attack on investigative journalism. Balkans

Now the Sicily correspondent LUKPAN AKHMEDYAROV of the weekly Espresso and Kazakhstan / Eastern Europe the daily La Stampa after years and Central Asia of working for the Italian news agency ANSA, Lirio Abbate is An investigative journalist based an expert on organized crime, in the northwestern city of especially the Sicilian variety. Uralsk, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, After being the only journalist 38, is well known for covering present at the arrest of Bernardo corruption and human rights Provenzano, Cosa Nostra’s abuses by President Nursultan “capo di tutti capi,” in April 2006, Nazarbayev’s autocratic regime he wrote a book the following for the regional weekly Uralskaya AMARA AL-KHITABI 2012 called “Save Benghazi.” headquarters of L’Indépendant, Libya / MENA The resulting threats of death or the newspaper he runs in abduction were too much even Bamako, beat him with clubs and The editor of the privately-owned for Mqawab and her commitment rifle butts, and threatened to kill Tripoli newspaper Al-Umma, to journalism and political him if he filed a complaint. He Amara Al-Khitabi is a victim activism. She finally fled abroad was found at a roadside later that of Libya’s penal code and, in and continues to be a journalist night by colleagues, who took particular, article 195, which in exile. him to hospital. The violence remains in effect although it is inflicted on this respected very repressive. Aged 67, he journalist testified to the decline was arrested on 21 November MALICK ALI MAIGA in Mali, formerly seen as a 2012 and was held for more Mali / Africa regional model of respect for than four months, becoming freedom of information. the first Libyan journalist to Malick Ali Maiga was a presenter be jailed after the fall of the for Adar Koima (Joy of the Hill), Gaddafi regime. His crime was the last of the six radio stations in ALI LMRABET publishing a list of 87 judges the northern city of Gao to keep Morroco / MENA and prosecutors suspected of going after the rebel MUJAO corruption and then refusing to and MNLA groups took the city Ali Lmrabet has been gagged in reveal his source. Charged with in March 2012 and repeatedly his country since 2005, when libel and “insulting the judicial threatened its journalists. He he was sentenced to a 10-year- system,” he faced a sentence drove around at night and ban on working as journalist of 3 to 15 years in prison under saw these self-styled men of for writing in a report for the article 195. Although in poor God committing abuses and Spanish daily El Mundo that the health, he went on hunger strike. trafficking in drugs. In May 2012, Sahrawis living in camps on the After being released, he was MNLA members gave him a outskirts of the Algerian town initially forbidden to leave the severe beating and “advised” him of Tindouf were “refugees” and country to seek treatment. It to refer to Azawad (“liberated” not “hostages” held against was only on 21 August 2013 northern Mali) in more positive their will, as the Moroccan that he was allowed to travel to terms. After residents helped government tends to claim. The Jordan. Article 195 was recently to free him, he continued to Moroccan penal code makes no amended, but only to adapt it to provide news coverage for the provision for such a ban. He was the post-Gaddafi era. It remains city he loves so much “Gao is previously sentenced in 2003 to as draconian as ever and Khitabi home for me (...) everyone there three years in prison on a charge is still facing a possible 15-year is my family.” He was attacked of “undermining respect for the sentence. again in August 2012, this time king” for publishing cartoons of by MUJAO members, after the monarchy and an interview reporting on the air that a protest with a left-wing former prisoner HANAN AL-MQAWAB had prevented the amputation (calling himself as a “republican”) Libya / MENA of a youth’s hand for theft. He in his weekly Demain. After was beaten with rifle butts for being held for eight months A 34-year-old Libyan woman two hours and left unconscious and staging a hunger strike for from Benghazi, Hanan Al- outside Gao’s hospital. After 50 days, he was released on a Mqawab was forged in the fire that, he finally fled to the safety pardon from King Mohammed of the revolution. Soon after of Bamako. But the Islamists did in January 2004. Nowadays, the start of the uprising, she not weaken his resolve and he he lives in the northern city began working as a citizen- continues to work as a journalist of Tétouan and, since 2011, journalist for the Media Centre, in the capital. has edited the Demain Online an ad hoc organization created website, defying the ban on to cover events in the east of journalistic work. “Without the country. She soon went SAOUTI HAÏDARA censorship or self-censorship, on to work for radio Benghazi Mali / Africa except as regards people’s Mahali, presenting reports on honour and dignity,” he says. the humanitarian situation, and The photos of Saouti Haïdara, then Shabab Libya FM, where the 62-year-old dean of Mali’s she covered the situation of press corps, on a hospital bed women and hosted a very with his face swollen and his popular programme called arm in plaster, went round Africa Isma’una (Listen to us), the and prompted a one-day protest first to talk openly about the strike by the Malian media. It abuses being committed by the happened on 12 July 2012, militias. Its reports linking armed two months after intelligence groups to egregious human officers interrogated him about rights violations led to a major his sources. A dozen armed demonstration on 21 September men kidnapped him from the LYDIA CACHO MILKA TADIC MIJOVIC information about Uzbekistan and Mexico / The Americas Montenegro / European union its neighbours. & Balkans Lydia Cacho’s coverage of violence and sexual abuse Even before the collapse of HAMID MIR affecting women and children Tito’s Yugoslavia, Milka Tadic Pakistan / Asia-Pacific has won her many international Mijovic was involved with one awards such as the Wallenberg of the pioneers of democracy Hamid Mir is a star – a star Medal, the Olof Palme prize and in the Balkans, the Monitor, reporter, TV anchor, terrorism the UNESCO press freedom Montenegro’s first independent expert and security analyst. prize. But it has also brought weekly. Her articles defending He has been fired twice, as a her a lot of trouble in Mexico, peace and ethnic minorities young reporter and as the Daily including a rape linked to her and combatting corruption Pakistan’s editor, for articles reporting in 1999, an arrest in won recognition internationally implicating Pakistani leaders in 2005 after the publication of her and trouble at home. She corruption. He help launched book Demonios del Eden (which was the first journalist to be the Daily Ausaf in Islamabad in helped bring down a major fired for criticizing Milosevic’s 1997, interviewed Osama Bin paedophile ring), an abortive plan aggressive policies. Since Laden twice (before and after by Puebla’s governor to have 2006, when Montenegro 9/11), and has hosted Capital her beaten and jailed in 2006, became independent, her Talk, a popular political talk the sabotaging of her car in problems have increased and show on Geo TV, since 2002. 2008, and being forced to flee have included physical threats, His stellar status has won him abroad temporarily in 2011. But financial pressures and judicial many international awards but all this failed to prevent her from harassment. Now the editor of also police harassment, political producing a new book in 2013 the Monitor, she shares a sad hostility (President Musharraf entitled Esclavas del Poder, privilege with the dailies Vijesti banned from TV for four months which is about sexual slavery and Dan, that of having paid in 2007-2008) and repeated worldwide. more than 300,000 euros in accusations of being a Taliban damages in the past few years. sympathiser. The Taliban dispelled those suspicions by VERÓNICA BASURTO putting a bomb under his car Mexico / The Americas MUTABAR TADJIBAYEVA in November after he defended Uzbekistan / Eastern Europe the schoolgirl activist Malala Covering police investigations and Central Asia Yousafzai. Fortunately it was is undoubtedly one of the most defused before it could go off. important activities carried out Six years ago, Mutabar Mir was shot several times by by journalists in Mexico. Verónica Tadjibayeva was fighting for her four men on motorcycles on the Basurto, a freelance working in life in an Uzbek prison. While outskirts of Karachi on 19 April Mexico City, took on the task of jailed from October 2005 to June 2014. shedding light on several cases 2008, this independent journalist of corruption and impunity. and human rights right defender Working with French journalist spent more than 100 days in Laurence Cuvillier of the TV news solitary and was subjected to channel France24 , she looked monstrous forms of mistreatment into the case of Hugo Alberto for refusing to sign a confession. Wallace, who was murdered in Her crime? Documenting human 2005, and the abduction of a rights violations by the Uzbek French citizen, Florence Cassez. authorities for several years, She was repeatedly threatened defending their victims and, by members of organized crime above all, investigating the 2005 gangs and also had to do battle Andijan massacre, in which with a hostile justice system. hundreds died when soldiers A climate of tension forced opened fire on protesters. Freed her to move house regularly in 2008 after being given the before finally going abroad. Martin Ennals Award, she now Her year’s exile in Spain is a lives in France. Despite a new clear indictment of the failings smear campaign, she has not of the Federal Mechanism for lost any of her combativeness, the Protection of Human Rights running an NGO called the Defenders and Journalists “Fiery Hearts Club”, which has created by the Mexican launched the news site Jarayon. government in October 2012. Using a vast network of citizen- Nonetheless, Basurto decided journalists and local activists, to return home and continue her this trilingual site is one of the investigative work. few sources of independent MUHAMMED ZIAUDDIN safety program. This is a major been hailed by journalists Pakistan / Asia-Pacific issue in a country where 32 internationally but has been journalists were massacred rewarded with arrests at home. Muhammad Ziauddin is an in Ampatuan in Maguindanao The latest was in September elder statesman of Pakistani province in November 2009, 2012, when a Nord Kivu journalism, with a 45-year a scar on the national psyche province customs official in Beni career behind him. He served which is unlikely to heal. Paraan accused him of libel. At the trial, as president of the South Asian subsequently led a fact-finding the prosecutor requested a year Free Media Association from mission to try to establish the in prison and 100,000 dollars 2002 to 2006 and is now circumstances of the massacre. in damages although Bel’Oka executive editor of The Express She has constantly pressed the produced documents proving Tribune. Since its launch, the authorities for justice for the what he wrote. But this is a English-language newspaper victims and their families and country where libel cases are has adopted an unflinchingly an end to impunity. She now tried solely on “intent to harm” liberal tone, whether reporting on faces a charge of contempt and ignore the facts of what is religious extremism or gay rights. as a result of her commitment. reported. As Bel’Oka told us: This has earned it many critics. More committed than ever to “The Congolese defamation law Last December, the staff were freedom of information, Paraan does not protect the media. It terrified by a grenade attack now runs Bayan Mo iPatrol protects the strongest, those and brief shootout. In Karachi in Mo, a citizen journalism outlet who have money and power.” The January this year, three of them that encourages Filipinos to get courts continue to turn a deaf ear were shot dead in cold blood by involved in disclosing instances and Bel’Oka’s appeal hearing a Taliban group unhappy with the of corruption and shortcomings has so far been postponed 19 paper’s editorial line. of society that they are aware of. times.

MABEL CÁCERES JOHNNY BISSAKONOU TSHIVIS TSHIVUADI Peru / The Americas CAR / Africa DRC / Africa

Mabel Cáceres was already an The “ordinary citizen’s The secretary-general of experienced journalist when spokesman” is how Johnny Journalist in Danger, a local she launched the weekly El Bissakonou describes himself. NGO, Tshivis Tshivuadi has Buho (The Owl) in Arequipa, Blogger, journalist, radio host, worked tirelessly for freedom Peru’s second largest city, in media editor – he has worn many of information in Democratic 2000. The stories she covers caps during years of trying to Republic of Congo for more than in detail include endemic provide as much information as 15 years. Instead of deterring corruption, illicit enrichment and possible about Central African him, his first death threats in the reconstruction of a regional Republic. His goal? To expose 2006 just convinced him to “Fujimorist” apparatus (by the what’s going on and work for keep going. He was threatened allies of former President Alberto a more democratic society. again on 1 September 2011 Fujimori, who was sentenced in When the rebel Seleka coalition and branded as a government 2009 to 25 years in prison for seized power in March 2012, opponent but he coolly continued murder, drug trafficking and other he courageously reported its to defend the Congolese crimes). She has been the target use of violence against civilians. media’s right to work freely. of no fewer than 13 lawsuits in This put him straight on to the When M23 rebels threatened a the past two years, which must Seleka blacklist and he finally journalist in October 2012, he be a record in Latin America. In fled the country after repeated loudly denounced this attempt spite of the protection provided threats and his brother’s murder at intimidation, to the point that by a Peruvian NGO, she keeps by militiamen who were looking M23’s leaders issued an apology. receiving frequent death threats. for him. From exile, he continues On 3 May 2013, Journalist in to address the international Danger issued a loud appeal to population on his blog and by “break the chains of censorship ROWENA PARAAN radio, hoping to be able to go and self-censorship” – a bold Philippines / Asia-Pacific back when his country is at message in a country where, peace again. despite superficial undertakings, Rowena Paraan has been a journalists are constantly journalist for more than 25 years. NICAISE KIBEL BEL’OKA hounded. Formerly the head of research République Démocratique du at the Philippines Center for DRC / Africa Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), she is now the chairwoman Winner of the CNN Africa press of the National Union of freedom prize in 2009, Nicaise Journalists of the Philippines Kibel Bel’Oka has devoted where for a long time she has years of his life to defending been running the journalists’ media freedom. His work has AKSANA PANOVA Duduyev were briefly kidnapped Russia / Eastern Europe and in Ingushetia in March 2010. Central Asia Harassment, threats and smear AGNÈS UWIMANA NKUSI campaigns have nonetheless Rwanda / Africa Aksana Panova has paid a high not stopped Dosh from covering price for her determination the Caucasus on a shoestring. Agnès Uwimana Nkusi is to expose corruption and On the contrary, Shovkhalov and a Rwandan journalist of negligence among powerful Duduyev keep on developing extraordinary courage. The editor local figures in the Yekaterinburg new projects. In 2013, they of the privately-owned bimonthly region in the Urals -- she has and the NGO Sintem together Umurabyo, she was first arrested been banned from doing her launched a magazine by in 2007 and sentenced to two job until the end of 2015. The and for women called Slovo years in prison on charges outspokenness of the Ura. Zhenshchiny. of inciting civil disobedience, ru website that she launched promoting division and genocide in 2006, and of which she denial. After serving her was editor, rapidly gained it SVETLANA REITER sentence, she went back to work popularity. It covered a variety of Russia / Eastern Europe and without submitting to the regime topics – the poor condition of Central Asia or heeding the High Media the roads, the fight against drug Council’s warnings. Barely a abuse, police corruption. But When Svetlana Reiter received year later, she was back in court Panova has powerful enemies in the Politprosvet political again just for doing her job to the region, which is one of the journalism award in 2013, she report the news. Convicted of country’s main industrial and oil felt she had to remind people defamation, this time she got a centres. Ousted from Ura.ru, she that she was interested mainly 17-year jail sentence –extremely set up Znak.com in 2012 and in social issues. This is the harsh but not as extreme as the most of her editorial staff joined paradox of a country where 33-year sentence sought by her there. However, she was hit the political and the social are the prosecutor. With her health by a flurry of lawsuits. As soon as intertwined more and more declining fast, the supreme court one allegation collapsed, another closely. It is also characteristic cut her sentence to four years in arose. After a year-and-a-half of a form of everyday journalism April 2012, a falsely generous of litigation, she was cleared in at ground level, far removed reduction that falls far short of two cases and exempted from from ideology and power her release and the quashing punishment in a third. However, games. Reiter has taken a close of her conviction, which press a businessman brought a well- interest in the prison system freedom groups are demanding. timed suit claiming damages and police violence, she has that he had incurred five years spoken to autistic children earlier and succeeded in getting and campaigners promoting BRANKICA STANKOVIĆ her convicted of extortion. She alternative policies of fighting Serbia / European union & received a fine, a two-year drug abuse… She has given Balkans suspended sentence and a ban a voice to a young Armenian on practising her profession for attacked by nationalists and to It’s not easy being an the same period. the police officers who rescued investigative journalist in him, suggesting that behind the Balkans, as the Serbian the stories of bloodshed and journalist Brankica Stanković ISRAPIL SHOVKHALOV hate reported in the media, knows only too well. She has Russia / Eastern Europe and there are others of “decency, headed Insajder, the B92 media Central Asia hope and friendship”. It was group’s flagship investigative her investigations into the TV programme, since 2004. Israpil Shovkhalov edits political prisoners held after the She was just doing her job in Dosh, the only independent Bolotnaya Square protests and November 2009 when she magazine that specializes in police violence in Kazan that won tackled the sensitive issue of political, economic and social her the Politprosvet award. It links between organized crime developments in Chechnya was other stories that brought and hooligans that support the and the rest of the Russian her problems. In September Belgrade football club Partizan. Caucasus. Since its creation 2012, she was summoned by That may have been her last in 2003, it has served as a the FSB security service for moment of complete freedom. unique information outlet and questioning about an interview Amid death threats and acts forum for dialogue in the face about torture in Chechnya, as a of intimidation that included of government censorship witness in an investigation into the stabbing of an inflatable and ubiquitous violence. But the chairman of the Committee doll representing Stanković tackling such sensitive subjects Against Torture. In March this in the stands of the Partizan as corruption, enforced year, Reiter and most of her stadium, the police put her under disappearances and the colleagues at Lenta.ru, left the protection. She nonetheless consequences of Chechnya’s previously independent news site still continues to investigate two wars entails risk. Shovkhalov after it was abruptly taken under organized crime and corruption. and Dosh publisher Abdulla Kremlin control. BLAŽ ZGAGA RAZAN ZAITOUNEH organizes roundtables and Slovenia / European union & Syria / MENA training sessions, and manages Balkans three legal support centres A writer and human rights lawyer across the country. Ljubljana-based freelance who founded the Violations investigative journalist Blaž Documentation Centre in Syria Zgaga is the author of “In the (VDC) in 2011, Razan Zaitouneh CHIRANUCH Name of the State,” a bestseller was kidnapped on 9 December PREMCHAIPORN about arms trafficking in the 2013 along with her husband Thailand / Asia-Pacific Balkans in 1990s, when it was and two VDC colleagues in the a regional speciality. In 2000, Damascus suburb where they Chiranuch Premchaiporn, he exposed the existence of were hiding from government better known by the pen name clandestine US intelligence forces. It is not known for sure Jiew, is the editor of the online operations in the Balkans who kidnapped them, but newspaper Prachatai. She was and was facing a five-year jail some sources said they were briefly arrested and prosecuted sentence for revealing “military members of the Salafi group in 2010 for lèse majesté. Under secrets” until finally acquitted. Jaysh Al-Islam. Awarded many the terms of the draconian Far from being discouraged, prizes including the Sakharov Computer Crimes Act, she could he went on to trigger a political Prize for Freedom of Thought face up to 50 years in prison. earthquake in Slovenia by in 2011 and the International The evidence was scant: she revealing that senior Slovenian Women of Courage Award in was accused of failing to remove officials had received kickbacks 2013, Zaitouneh knew she was anti-monarchist comments from a contract with a Finnish under threat from all sides. In from the site quickly enough in arms manufacture. The many a video message recorded five 2008. She was subjected to public figures hit by the scandal days before her disappearance, judicial harassment for more include former Prime Minister she said: “I salute the thousands than three years, during which Janez Janša, who received a two- of men and women who work time she did all she could to year jail sentence in June 2013. silently at the grass roots to counter censorship of her site, achieve their dream of freedom before being given a suspended and justice.” sentence of eight months’ M. V. KAANAMYLNAATHAN imprisonment and a fine of Sri Lanka / Asia-Pacific 20,000 baht ($635) in 2012. NURIDDIN KARCHIBOEV Determined to assert her rights M. V. Kaanamylnathan had Tajikistan / Eastern Europe and win her case, she appealed 50 years’ tough experience in and Central Asia against the court’s decision. journalism and had worked for But the legal system refused to every Tamil-language newspaper Nuriddin Karshiboev has written budge. Premchaiporn’s battle for in Sri Lanka when he took the more than 600 articles and freedom of the press is indicative helm of the main Tamil daily reports in a 30-year career. He of the harshness of Thai justice Uthayan in 1985, two years after likes to say he fell into journalism system and the punitive nature of the civil war flared up. Dozens at a very young age. While some of its laws which, instead of members of the paper’s still at school he wrote articles of protecting the monarchy, staff were among the conflict’s in newspapers for children. are used as political weapons 100,000 dead. Bombings, However, grander ambitions against critical and independent shootings, grenade attacks and have brought him fame these voices. murders were used to try to days. He heads the Tajik National silence a voice that tried to keep Association of Independent to a middle course between Media (NANSMIT), which he the central government and the co-founded in 1999. He works Tamil rebels. Five years after tirelessly to defend colleagues the official end of the conflict, who are under pressure, to Kaanamylnathan, who himself promote the highest ethical and escaped an attack in 2001, and democratic standards and to his newspaper are still making fight for changes in Tajik law to waves. Last year, a series of improve freedom of information. articles on land seizures by the In a country traumatized by Sri Lankan army was followed civil war and having to face by a brutal attack on the paper’s the authoritarian tendencies offices by six masked men. of an unshakable government, NAMSIT has been the sword and shield of independent journalism and an incubator for a democratic and pluralistic media culture. The association records violations of press freedom, JOSÉ BELO Tonga Chronicle, Tonga’s first Akademia Prize for Freedom of Timor Leste / Asia-Pacific newspaper. Two years later, the Press. he launched a website www. During the Indonesian taimionline.com which streams occupation of Timor Leste in the media group’s radio stations. HASAN CEMAL the 1990s, José Belo learned Through his news outlets and Turkey / Eastern Europe and to cope with anything. He was groups such as the Pacific Central Asia handcuffed, hung by his feet, Islands Media Association, Moala burned and put in prison for continues to fight for press “If this is journalism, then down three years. Finally in 2008, the freedom and to inspire young with your journalism!” Prime country’s legal system, which journalists in the region. Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been independent for only a did not mince his words when short time, threatened him with he accused the daily Milliyet of seven years’ imprisonment for FAHEM BOUKADOUS jeopardising the peace process accusing the minister of justice Tunisia / MENA with Kurdish rebels in March of corruption. Today the founder last year when it published the of the uncompromising weekly Fahem Boukadous has suffered minutes of the negotiations. His Tempo Semanal and president a lot for the right to information, blast was aimed partly at the of the Timor-Leste Press Union including torture, imprisonment, noted columnist Hasan Cemal, is waging a new battle -- against several hunger strikes and who defended his newspaper a new media law being cooked living in hiding. A human rights and said he believed each must up by the Dili government and activist during the Ben Ali era, do his job. He was forced to parliament. He believes the when no freedom of opinion was resign shortly afterwards. Yet, if legislation will give too much tolerated, Boukadous was one anyone believes in peace and power to a proposed Press of the few journalists to cover reconciliation, it is him. But he Council to be appointed by the 2008 uprising in the Gafsa is also used to breaking taboos. the government. He says he is mining district. After being tried At the height of the fighting prepared to go to prison again to and convicted in 2010, he had between Ankara and the PKK, prevent its passage into law. expected to spend the next he was among the handful of four years in prison. But thanks journalists who went to interview to the revolution of 14 January the rebels in their stronghold in KALAFI MOALA 2011, Boukadous was released the Kandil mountains. In 2012, Tonga / Asia-Pacific and was able to resume the he published a book whose title struggle. Later the same year, alone would have landed him “If you’re going to influence any he and other activists founded in prison a few years earlier: society, or any group of people, the Tunis Centre for Media “1915: Armenian Genocide”. It information is the key. [...] The Freedom (CTLP) with the aim of quickly became a best seller and victory for freedom of the press monitoring violations of Tunisian its success was was a sign that and freedom of expression is a journalists’ rights, participating in Turkish society was changing. victory for the people.” That is the the overhaul of the media sector The 70-year-old journalist, who motto of Kalafi Moala, publisher and giving training in media now works for the news website and managing director of Taimi ethics. T24, is still the regular target of Media Network based in the hate campaigns and smears by archipelago’s capital, Nuku’alofa. the far right. In 1989, at a time when all news NAJIBA HAMROUNI outlets were in the hands of an Tunisia / MENA authoritarian government or the church. Moala launched Taimi O Najiba Hamrouni, acknowledged Tonga, Tonga’s first independent by her peers as a model of weekly and one of the most integrity, has spared no effort controversial newspapers in in defending the freedom of the the whole Pacific region. In press. Originally an ordinary 1996, Moala and his colleagues member of the Association of were sentenced to 30 days’ Tunisian Journalists, she became imprisonment each for publishing the treasurer of the National pro-democracy reports that were Union of Tunisian Journalists, judged to be seditious. Using in 2008 and was elected its prison visitors, the tenacious president in 2011. Her courage journalist managed to smuggle and her will have enabled her out editorials written on toilet to defend Tunisia’s journalists tissue which were published in and their working conditions, the course of the following four while stressing on the need for weeks. Banned from publishing the national media to break with in 2003 and again in 2004, how journalism was practiced Kalafi hung on and in 2009 under the former government. In he acquired the state-owned late 2013 she was awarded the OLEKSIY MATSUKA one of Ukraine’s experts on the LAURA POITRAS Ukraine / Eastern Europe and corrupt practices of its political USA / The Americas Central Asia and business elite. A critic of the Orange Revolution’s broken Without Laura Poitras, the Oleksiy Matsuka’s car was promises, he was also one of meeting between Edward torched outside his home in the most lucid observers of the Snowden and Glenn Greenwald the eastern city of Donetsk on Yanukovych regime’s oligarchic might never have taken place. 12 April. Then his photo with and authoritarian excesses. His When the whistleblower the words “Attention, traitor!” reporting is part and parcel of contacted Greenwald in was circulated amid mounting his civic activism. He helped 2011, the latter was reluctant tension a few days later. launch the “Stop Censorship!” to use secure encrypted This is not the first time the press freedom campaign and communications. Snowden 31-year-old journalist has been the “Chesno” campaign for turned to Poitras, who was threatened. The news site he transparency and financial familiar with such techniques. has been running for the past responsibility. His blog is one of It’s easy to see why. The US 10 years, Novosti Donbasa, the country’s most popular. authorities had had their sights covers regional corruption, on the film-maker ever since power struggles and abuse of she made the Oscar-nominated authority. Since the summer of GLENN GREENWALD documentary “My Country, My 2013, he has been using his USA / The Americas Country” about the war in Iraq Donetskaya Pravda project to in 2006. Whenever she travels, go further, investigating local Glenn Greenwald is a former her air ticket is marked SSSS, government spending, public lawyer, journalist and star which stands for “Secondary bidding and conflicts of public blogger of the US edition of the Security Screening Selection”. and private interest. Shortly after Guardian newspaper. He will This means she is on a watch the project was launched, he always be remembered as the list and is subjected to extensive and his colleagues began being journalist behind the revelations questioning when she returns the targets of close surveillance, by Edward Snowden. He first from abroad. She has been threats and strange warnings met the man who a few days questioned more than 40 times – incidents not unlike what he later became the most famous and her computer equipment is experienced him 2011, when whistleblower in history in a regularly seized and inspected. his apartment was set on fire by tiny Hong Kong hotel room in She has never been given a someone who blocked his exit May 2012. Snowden handed reason for this harassment. and left a wreath at the door. over to the American journalist Poitras now lives in Berlin where Fortunately, he was not at home. tens of thousands of classified she continues her work with documents that showed the Greenwald on the surveillance extent of the surveillance practices of the NSA. She has SERHIY LECHTCHENKO practices of the British and US received numerous honours and Ukraine / Eastern Europe and intelligence services. Working awards for her documentary Central Asia alone from Rio de Janeiro, work. Greenwald shook the world’s The day after President most powerful nation and its Viktor Yanukovych fled, on British allies to their foundations. 22 February 2014, the world US President Barack Obama was amazed by the luxury of and Britain’s prime minister, his Mezhyhirya Residence. David Cameron, were publicly But Serhiy Leshchenko confronted with evidence of was anything but surprised. the abuses carried out by their Chandeliers, marble, private intelligence services. They were zoo, car collection and airstrip faced with a diplomatic firestorm on the bank of the Dnieper, he and an outcry from activists had already described all of and campaigners for a free that in detail and had drawn Internet. It was largely thanks attention to the gulf between to Greenwald’s work that the this wealth and the president’s Guardian US was awarded the official income. He had even prestigious Pulitzer Prize for investigated the origin of this “its revelation of widespread money in depth. Leshchenko secret surveillance by the joined the independent news National Security Agency” and website Ukrainskaya Pravda for sparking “a debate about in 2000, a few days before its the relationship between the founder, Georgi Gongadze was government and the public over murdered. He is now its deputy issues of security and privacy”. editor. Like his colleague Mustafa Nayyem, he quickly became LE NGOC THANH not protect him. His passport Foundation in 2013. Vietnam / Asia-Pacific was confiscated as he was about to board a flight to Geneva Anton le Ngoc Thanh is a in February 2014 to attend journalist and a Catholic a conference on rights and priest. His work for Vietnam freedoms in Vietnam. Redemporist News, a Catholic news organization for which he has worked since the 1990s, has TRUONG DUY NHAT caused him numerous problems Vietnam / Asia-Pacific with the Vietnamese authorities. In 2012 he was stopped for After starting out as a reporter questioning on his way to Bac for regional police publications, Lieu in the south of the country, Truong Duy Nhat worked for where a woman had set fire to the daily Dai Doan Ket (Great herself in protest against her Solidarity). But he resigned as a daughter, the blogger Ta Phong state media journalist in 2010 to Tan, being put on trial. He was become a prolific and outspoken held for several hours for causing blogger, calling his blog – a traffic accident while travelling originally truongduynhat.vn and on foot. He was arrested again then, a year later, truongduynhat. last year during a demonstration org – “Another point of view.” He in support of the blogger and posted more than 1,000 articles, activist Dinh Nhat Uy, convicted most of them his own, in the for organizing a campaign space of three years. After four for the release of his jailed orders to close his blogs, he younger brother. Thanh is under was finally arrested in May 2013 constant police surveillance and and sentenced to two years in is frequently prevented from prison in connection with 12 of covering and publicizing the his most vitriolic articles. Seven human rights abuses that he has months before his arrest, he witnessed. wrote: ““I am neither a criminal nor a reactionary. The handcuff and gun should not be used PHAM CHI DUNG against bloggers who sacrifice Vietnam / Asia-Pacific their interests to keep outspoken blogs that are helping to change Like others who have seen the party and the people.” nomenklatura corruption up close, Pham Chi Dung returned his party card. Instead he ABDUL BARY TAHER devoted himself to writing Yemen / MENA and developing a critique of Vietnam’s political class, which Abdul Bary Taher is leading he knows inside out. He was a figure in the fight for press military officer for many years freedom in Yemen. He began his and was an aide to Truong Tan career as a journalist in 1973, Sang in Ho Chin Minh City writing for the daily Al-Thawra before Sang became president (Revolution). He served as its in 2011. He has written about editor in chief between 1990 public security and the dominant and 1992 but has paid a high cultural, economic and religious price for the independence ideology. He was arrested and outspokenness of his on charges of “conspiring to editorials. He has been overthrow the government” and subjected to harassment by the “anti-government propaganda” authorities, having been taken in July 2012 in connection with in for questioning five times and articles about corruption and ending up in prison. Taher is a the government’s shortcomings, founding member of the Yemeni but the investigation was Journalists Union and was its abandoned and he was released president from 1976 to 1998. A seven months later. His PhD in staunch defender of freedom of economics, his 11 books and the press, he received the first his many interviews for the BBC, press freedom prize awarded by RFI and Radio Free Asia still do the Yemeni NGO the Freedom