CPJ, IPFA, and Shi Tao
From cpj.org:
The Committee to Protect Journalists will present its 2005 International Press Freedom Awards to three journalists and a media lawyer—from Brazil, China, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe—who have endured beatings, threats, intimidation, and jail because of their work.
The awards will be presented at CPJ's 15th annual awards dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Tuesday, November 22. Here are the awardees:
Galima Bukharbaeva, former Uzbekistan correspondent for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, risked her life covering the killing of hundreds of protestors by government troops in the city of Andijan in May. Bukharbaeva, now in exile in the United States, faces criminal prosecution for her reporting on the Andijan crisis, police torture, and the repression of Islamic activists.
Beatrice Mtetwa, a media lawyer, is a tireless defender of press freedom in Zimbabwe, where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists. Despite being arrested and beaten because of her work, she continues at great personal risk to defend journalists. She has won acquittals for several journalists facing criminal charges, including two London journalists arrested during April's tightly controlled presidential election.
Lúcio Flávio Pinto, publisher and editor of the bimonthly paper Jornal Pessoal, has courageously reported on drug trafficking, environmental devastation, and political and corporate corruption in a vast, remote region of Brazil's Amazon. Physically assaulted and threatened with death, he also faces a constant barrage of civil and criminal lawsuits aimed at silencing him.
Shi Tao has been a freelance journalist for Internet publications and an editor for Dangdai Shang Bao, a Chinese business newspaper. His essays on political reform, published on news Web sites outside of China, drew the ire of authorities. Now serving a 10-year prison sentence for "leaking state secrets abroad," Shi's plight highlights China's intense effort to control information on the Internet.
CPJ will also honor the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings with the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for a lifetime of distinguished achievement. Jennings learned of the award just weeks before his death in August. During 41 years as correspondent and anchor, Jennings reported on nearly every historical milestone from every corner of the world, earning a reputation for independence and excellence....
Shi Tao is serving a 10-year sentence in China on charges of "leaking state secrets abroad." Shi worked as an editor for Dangdai Shang Bao (Contemporary Trade News), a newspaper in the city of Changsha, in Hunan Province. He also wrote essays calling for political reform that were posted on overseas news Web sites that are banned in China.
He was arrested in November 2004 for posting notes from a directive issued by China's Propaganda Department that instructed the media how to cover the 15th anniversary of the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Shi's appeal was rejected in June. His mother has filed for a review of the appeal, charging "serious procedural defects."
Shi's imprisonment highlights the Chinese government's intense efforts to control the Internet, the only alternative to China's officially sanctioned print and broadcast media. The government monitors Internet content, blocks Web sites, requires bloggers to register their identities, and solicits the help of companies doing business in China. In this case, the U.S. Internet giant Yahoo helped authorities identify Shi through his e-mail account.
Half of the 42 journalists imprisoned in China at year's end in 2004 were jailed for work distributed on the Internet. Many had written for Chinese-language Web sites hosted overseas.
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