16 October 2008
Women Journalists Honored for Risking Their Lives
Despite danger, awardees persevere to promote press freedom
Washington — For Afghan journalist Farida Nekzad, advocacy for democracy and women’s rights has made death threats a way of life.
In June 2007 her friend and colleague Zakia Zaki was murdered; at the funeral Nekzad received a phone call warning she would also be killed — so gruesomely that her body would be unrecognizable. Nekzad refused to be silent, and her resolve has earned her an award from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).
Founded in 1990, the Washington-based IWMF serves as a global network to promote freedom of the press and the increased role of women in reporting the news. Each year the organization highlights the courage and dedication of female journalists around the world by presenting three Courage in Journalism awards and one Lifetime Achievement award. (See “Foundation Honors Courageous Women Journalists.”)
Nekzad was joined by Burma’s Aye Aye Win and Sevgul Uludag of Cyprus for the 2008 Courage in Journalism awards. American Edith Lederer of the Associated Press was honored with this year’s Lifetime Achievement award.
These are women who have “persevered despite extreme adversity, continuing to report the news under difficult and dangerous circumstances,” Executive Director Jane Ransom said at IWMF’s October 9 award ceremony.
“We know from previous winners that one of the most important benefits of the award is that it can provide some protection and support for journalists facing danger,” she added.
CBS’ Kimberly Dozier, who was injured by a roadside bomb while reporting from Iraq in 2006, praised the honorees as heroes who “live in the fire.”
“Every time you walk outside the door, every time you ask a question, you are challenging your culture, you are challenging your government, and you are risking your lives,” she said.
AYE AYE WIN
Burma’s Aye Aye Win did not attend the ceremony because of concern that the country’s military regime would threaten the safety of her loved ones. Executive Director Ransom described Win’s life as one of constant harassment.
“She’s been hauled into local military intelligence offices and interrogated repeatedly, and she’s been threatened by the state-owned press, which once issued a ‘last warning’ implying that she would be killed if she did not cease reporting,” Ransom said.
Win’s dedication has included disguising herself to cover the 2007 pro-democracy protests and covering the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May to the point that she needed to be hospitalized for exhaustion.
SEVGUL ULUDAG
Sevgul Uludag’s years of work to investigate the fate of missing Greek and Turkish Cypriots has helped raise awareness of a violent past that many nationalist groups on both sides would prefer remain obscure.
Two newspapers close to the Turkish military ran a campaign against her for three years, publishing her photograph every day with accusations that she was a spy and traitor. Despite receiving her own “last warning” from the Turkish nationalist group Grey Wolves, she has continued to uncover information leading to exhumations of victims from Cyprus’ decades-old conflict.
“It’s an expired conflict, I believe,” Uludag said, adding that her motivation to keep going is that “I don’t want our children to carry on living with this conflict and paying the price.”
EDITH LEDERER
Lifetime Achievement honoree Edith Lederer was praised for her groundbreaking work over four decades, serving as the first female resident correspondent in Vietnam in 1972 and moving on from there to cover war zones and conflicts on every inhabited continent.
When Lederer began, there were few women covering hard news such as wars and natural disasters. Her work paved the way for other female journalists like CBS’ Dozier.
“Lederer led the way,” Dozier said. “Thanks to her, there was no question when I asked to go to Kosovo or to Baghdad numerous times, or to cover the crises in the Palestinian territories.”
CONSTANT DANGER, PERSONAL SATISFACTION
Afghanistan’s Nekzad said her motivation comes in part from wanting to be a role model for other women in her country “so that they can be encouraged, so that they can play an important role in society and not to be silenced,” she said. “This is not an easy task.”
While covering the international trials of Afghan criminals and warlords in 2003, Nekzad took a harrowing cab ride with a driver who first threatened her life and then sped off with her toward an unknown destination.
“I screamed at him and said ‘Stop the car!’ and he said, ‘Nobody can hear your voice,’” Nekzad said. “I didn’t know what to do. … While the car was speeding I opened the door and threw myself out,” and she injured herself in the process.
But along with the danger, each woman recalled moments of personal satisfaction, such as when Uludag helped the family of a murdered Greek Cypriot judge, missing since the early 1960s, finally find closure with the discovery of his body.
Lederer related how in Somalia her intervention saved the lives of immobile famine victims, and Nekzad told of her relief to have her husband’s active support of her work, despite pressure from other members of her family.
More information is available on the International Women’s Media Foundation Web site.
