Celebrating Journalists

Colombian journalist for El Universal, Claudia Ayola Escalón, has received several death threats in recent weeks via email.  She also received strange phone calls and an encounter on the streets of Cartagena.  Ayola's writings typically relate to "political and social issues, human rights and sexuality.  As you know, Latin America is a pretty rough place for journalists.

At the same time that journalists in Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere are killed or silenced for their reporting on controversial issues, three journalists were recently honored at the 2010 Courage in Journalism Awards in New York.  The three women were recognized for "penetrat[ing] press barriers in order to report from the frontlines of their countries and communities."

Two of the four winners are from Latin America.  Alma Guillermoprieto is a Mexican born writer known for being one of two journalists to travel to El Salvador to investigate the massacre at El Mozote in 1981.

Colombian journalist Claudia Duque was also recognized for her reporting on child trafficking, illegal adoptions, and paramilitaries.

Since Duque exposed Colombia's secret police, the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), for tampering with evidence in the murder of political journalist Jaime Garzon, she has been kidnapped on multiple occasions, robbed, and issued countless death threats. But what is most vile about Duque's predators is their continuous threat to torture, rape and murder her 10-year-old daughter.

Vicky Ntetema, a Tanzanian journalist, received the award for her work on, among other things, the power of witchdoctors in traditional African society. 

When Ntetema began to investigate rumours of an odious blackmarket in Tanzania that bought and sold the body parts of mutilated albinos, she single-handedly uncovered a story of genocide that has put her in critical danger.

In 2007, Ntetema heard that four albino Tanzanians had been brutally murdered by witchdoctors who used their arms, legs and hair in potions supposed to bring good fortune. Posing as a customer, Ntetema gained access to the repugnant inner workings of the industry, but was exposed when her recording device fell out of her pocket.

Since then, despite countless death threats, Ntetema has continued to shed light on the practices of the witchdoctors who hold tremendous political power in traditional African society. "Eighty percent of Tanzanians survive on a dollar a day," Ntetema said. "And these potions go for a thousand U.S. dollars a pat. The demand comes from the rich."

Finally, Tsering Woeser was recognized even though the Chinese government confiscated her passport so that she could not attend the ceremony.  Woeser is a Tibetan freelance writer and blogger based in Beijng.

In a pre-recorded acceptance speech, she stressed the importance of new media in circumventing the great 'Firewall' in China. She referred to herself as a "media machine, a weapon for the powerless against the power of the world, a weapon of non-violence and non-cooperation."

Congratulations.