By: Walter Wafula


According to information from CPJ, Mwenda will be recognised for his epic journalism alongside Iraq's Bilal Hussein, Afghanistan's Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad and Cuba's Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, who all risked imprisonment, harassment, and, above all, their lives to report the news and stand up for press freedom in their countries.

“These are the front-line reporters who risk their lives and their liberty to bring the news not only to the people of their own countries but to a global audience,” said CPJ board chairman, Paul Steiger in a statement to the press on 16 September 2008. “Their courage and determination have expanded the world's knowledge in critically important ways.”

“Our award winners embody what CPJ stands for — the right of journalists everywhere to report the news as they see it,” CPJ executive director, Joel Simon said. “We honour them and stand behind them and their colleagues as they strive to keep all of us informed.”

In addition, CPJ said, Beatrice Mtetwa, a press and human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, will receive CPJ's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in recognition of her continued efforts to ensure a free press in one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

The Burton Benjamin Memorial Award is named in honour of the late CBS News senior producer and former CPJ chairman who died in 1988. Mtetwa, a 2005 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award, is the first person to be honoured with both awards.

“Mtetwa's courageous efforts on behalf of journalists in Zimbabwe demonstrate her unflinching commitment,” CPJ's Steiger said. “She is richly deserving of the Burton Benjamin Award, given for lifetime achievement in the cause of press freedom.”

The awards will be presented at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Tuesday, 25 November 2008. Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, is chairman of the black-tie dinner. Gwen Ifill, CPJ board member and managing editor of PBS' “Washington Week,” will be the host.

Uganda's Mwenda, is one of Uganda's most outspoken and best recognised journalists. A press freedom fighter throughout his career, Mwenda resigned last year as political editor of Uganda's leading independent daily, The Monitor, arguing that government intimidation had compromised its editorial freedom.

This year, despite repeated harassment by police, Mwenda launched The Independent, a hard-hitting publication critical of the government. In April, after Mwenda published two stories criticising the Ugandan Army and its role in northern Uganda's civil war, police raided his office and detained him along with two other reporters.

He has faced persecution from the government and police throughout his journalism career: His political talkshow on KFM, “Tonight with Andrew Mwenda,” was banned several times and he has been slapped with dozens of defamation lawsuits in recent years.

[17 Sep 2008 14:44]

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