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Journalists from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Ethiopia, Iraq gain recognition
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Foundation Honors Courageous Women Journalists
Journalists from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Ethiopia, Iraq gain recognition
October 29, 2007
Mexican Journalist Lydia Cacho alongside Mexican Writer, October 2007
Mexican Journalist Lydia Cacho alongside Mexican Writer
© AP Images

By Stephen Kaufman
USINFO Staff Writer


Women Journalists Honored

Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho alongside Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska, right, during a news conference in Puebla, Mexico, in 2006. Cacho and women journalists from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Iraq have won the International Women’s Media Foundation 2007 Courage in Journalism Awards. Such awards help promote a free press, which the United States views as an essential foundation of democracy. More(© AP Images)

Washington -- Reporting the news from Zimbabwe is a dangerous endeavor causing “a constant state of sadness,” veteran journalist Peta Thornycroft said. But despite the constant risk to her personal safety as one of the country’s few remaining independent journalists, and her despair at the results of the government’s policies and human rights abuses, she pushes herself to continue because “it’s a story that has to be told.”

Thornycroft, Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho, Ethiopia’s Serkalem Fasil, and six Iraqi women journalists from the McClatchy News Baghdad bureau all were recognized for 2007 by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) for their dedication to their profession and their personal bravery.

IWMF Executive Director Jane Ransom told USINFO her organization has been recognizing brave and dedicated women journalists for 18 years, also honoring individuals such as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, South Africa’s Gwen Lister, the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Christian Science Monitor’s Jill Carroll.

“The award itself is to honor and celebrate women who have exhibited exceptional bravery in the line of their reporting duties in bringing the truth to people,” Ransom said, adding that the attention gained through the award can provide the winners with added protection from hostile governments.



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For additional information on U.S. policy, see Freedom of the Press.

 
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