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Updated:
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Posted: July 25, 2008 |
MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact:
NABJ Communications
(866) 479-NABJ
NABJ to Recognize 10 Imprisoned Journalists with its Foreign Journalist Award
Journalists arrested for calling on ‘democratic reforms’ in Eritrea
CHICAGO , July 25 , 2008—The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) recognizes 10 journalists imprisoned in the northeast African country of Eritrea with its Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist Award.
These print journalists, some presumed dead, were arrested after calling for a democratic government. The Eritrean journalists were recognized by NABJ at the quadrennial UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention, July 23-27, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois.
“As the nation’s journalists of color convene this summer, we must call attention to the impunities against the press practiced by the Eritrean government,” said NABJ President Barbara Ciara.
“We join with the Society to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders in calling for their release. It is our hope that the award will bring wider attention to the issue of journalistic freedom around the world.”
According to Reporters Without Borders, in September 2001 the Eritrean government ordered that all of the country’s privately-owned publications be shut down. Soon after, police arrested about 15 journalists and accused them of publishing interviews with political leaders who called for democratic reforms in Eritrea. At least four of the journalists arrested died in prison between 2005 and 2007. Eritrea ranks last, after North Korea, on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index.
Today, there are 10 journalists imprisoned in Eritrea: Yusuf Mohamed Ali (presumed dead), Tsigenay’s editor-in-chief; Mattewos Habteab, Meqaleh’s editor-in-chief; Dawit Habtemichael, also with Meqaleh; Medhanie Haile (presumed dead) and Temesgen Gebreyesus, associate editor and board member, respectively, of Keste Debena; Emanuel Asrat, Zemen’s editor-in-chief; Dawit Isaac and Fessehaye Yohannes (presumed dead), both with Setit; Said Abdulkader (presumed dead) of Admas magazine; and Seyoum Tsehaye, a freelance photographer.
The Percy Qoboza Award is given to a foreign journalist who has done extraordinary work while overcoming tremendous obstacles that contribute to the enrichment, understanding or advancement of people or issues in the African diaspora. The award is named for writer, columnist and editor Percy Qoboza, an outspoken critic of the early apartheid government of South Africa. Qoboza was jailed and exiled to the United States for editorials that spoke against the then separatist government.
As part of its mission, NABJ remains committed to telling the stories of the African diaspora. In addition to the Percy Qoboza Award, NABJ annually awards $5,000 fellowships to journalists seeking international reporting experience through self-conceived assignments in Africa through its Ethel Payne Fellowship. The 2008 fellowship winners will travel to Kenya to investigate The Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) and Ghana to examine child labor and several forms of contemporary slavery.
An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with more than 4,100 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.
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