An Indian journalist and a Philippine campaigner on Thursday won Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Awards for bravery in holding governments to account in the face of persistent threats.
Freelance reporter Swati Chaturvedi and social media campaigner Inday Espina-Varona were honored at the RSF annual awards, being staged in London for the first time.
Maltese journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia, who has carried on the work of his mother, Daphne, murdered for exposing corruption on the Mediterranean island, was also honored at the ceremony at the Getty Images Gallery.
Photo: AFP
Caruana Galizia won the Prize for Impact, awarded for work that has led to an increase in awareness of journalistic freedom.
Established in 1985 to defend and promote press freedom, Paris-based RSF has been presenting its yearly awards since 1992.
Previous winners include the late Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet.
Chaturvedi won the Prize for Courage, awarded for journalism in a hostile environment.
She has faced online harassment campaigns after exposing what she calls a “troll army” operating for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I get a dozen death threats every day and around 15 to 20 rape threats,” Chaturvedi told reporters. “The whole idea of a democracy is that you are allowed to have a dissenting view. Unfortunately, the way politics has panned out across the world, journalists are really under threat.”
“It is sad that you are called courageous just for doing your job,” she said.
Veteran journalist Espina-Varona founded a social media women’s rights campaign in response to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments on women.
“After a particularly hard-hitting column, I find 50 to 80 private messages calling me a liar, an ugly woman, and mostly these are sexist attacks,” Espina-Varona told reporters.
“The slurs don’t really bother me, but the threats that say: ‘We know where you live, we’ll see if you are as brave as you think’ — that bothers me, because it also happens to other journalists.”
She won the Prize for Independence, awarded to reporters for resisting pressure in carrying out their work.
“Independence is very important for citizen journalism. I teach young people to be critical-minded and I hope this award will inspire them,” she said.
Sixty-three journalists, 11 citizen journalists and four media assistants have been killed so far this year, RSF said, including Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who was allegedly murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Fifty-fve journalists were killed in the whole of last year.
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