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| UNESCO/Guillermo Cano
World Press Freedom Prize |
The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, instituted in 1997, is intended to honour each year a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially if some risk was involved. It was established on the initiative of UNESCO's Executive Board and is formally conferred by the Director-General of the Organization, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May.
The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist assassinated by the drug cartels on 17 December 1986, in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotá.
Guillermo Cano's fate exemplifies the price paid by journalists and the media the world over: Journalists are imprisoned and ill-treated on account of their profession every day. The fact that these crimes for the most part go unpunished is even more alarming.
The US $25,000 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals chaired by Mia Doornaert, President of UNESCO's Advisory Group for Press Freedom. Names are submitted by regional and international non-governmental organizations working for press freedom and by UNESCO Member States.
| 2001 - U Win Tin, Myanmar |
This year's laureate, U Win Tin - former editor of the daily Hanthawati newspaper in Myanmar, vice-chair of Myanmar's Writers' Association and a founder of the National League for Democracy - was arrested in July 1989. Three months later, accused of being a member of the banned Communist Party of Myanmar, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and transported to Insein jail in Rangoon. In 1996, U Win Tin was tried in prison and sentenced to an additional five years for breaking prison regulations prohibiting the possession of writing materials. Later that year he was moved to Myingyan jail north of Rangoon, where his family and friends could no longer visit him or send him food and medicine. In early October 1997, he was transferred to Rangoon General Hospital, where he remains and is reported to be seriously ill. His prison sentence will only end in July 2008, unless he renounces all political activities, which he refuses to do.
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| 2000 - Nizar Nayyouf, Syria |
The 2000 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded on 17 March 2000 to Syrian journalist Nizar Nayyouf by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura on recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.
Mr Nayyouf, editor-in-chief of the Sawt al-Democratiyya (The Voice of Democracy), published by the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom in Syria (CDF), and a contributor to the Al-Hurriya weekly has been in prison since January 10, 1992. He was sentenced to ten years of forced labour for belonging to the banned CDF and for disseminating "false" information. Weakened by torture and held in solitary confinement in the military prison of Mezze in Damascus, Mr Nayyouf's health is reported to be in an alarming state.
In 2001, at the occasion of the Jury session, the Chairperson of the jury,
Oliver Clarke, voiced grave concern about Nizar Nayyouf: "We are deeply
concerned for the very survival of Nizar Nayyouf. We understand that his
condition has deteriorated and that his life is in danger", Mr Clarke said.
The jury issued a statement saying: "We, the members of the jury, hereby
kindly request the Director-General of UNESCO to continue his efforts and
discussions with the Syrian authorities so that a solution can be reached
for the release of Mr Nayyouf on humanitarian grounds."
Mr Nayyouf has been released on 6 May 2001.
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| 1999 - Jesus Blancornelas, Mexico |
 Jesus Blancornelas of Mexico who survived
a 1997 assassination attempt for his exposés on corruption and
drug trafficking in Mexico was chosen to receive the 1999
UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Jesus Blancornelas will be awarded the $25,000 prize on 3 May in Bogota, Colombia, as part of the celebrations for World Press Freedom Day. Both activities are part of UNESCO's mission to promote the free flow of information and its activities in the interest of press freedom, media independence and pluralism.
Mr. Blancornelas is the co-founder and editor of the Tijuana-based Zeta news weekly as well as the vice-president of the Mexican Society of Journalists, which he helped to create in 1998 to fight for press freedom. Mr. Blancornelas has also been investigating the 1988 murder of Zeta co-founder Hector Felix Miranda.
The prize, chosen by a jury of 14 news professionals from around the world, honours each year a person, organization or institution that has made a notable contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially if it involves risk.
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| 1998 - Christina Anyanwu, Nigeria |
 The 1998 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded by UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor to the Nigerian journalist Christina Anyanwu who is the publisher and editor in chief of "The Sunday Magazine" (Lagos, Nigeria).
According to the World Press Freedom Committee and Reporters Sans Frontieres which proposed her for the prize, she is being held in detention in a prison in the north-east of Nigeria in particularly difficult conditions.
She was arrested following the publication of an article about an attempted coup against the Nigerian government on March 1, 1995, and was condemned to life imprisonment by a special military tribunal in a trial held behind closed doors on July 4, 1995. Her sentence was commuted to 15 years on October 10, 1995. According to the same sources, her trial was marked by numerous irregularities. She was, notably, denied the right of appeal.Christina Anyanwu is one of four journalists held in detention since the attempted coup in her country where infringements of the rights of the journalists and freedom of the press are innumerable.
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| 1997 - Gao Yu, China |
 On 21 March 1997, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded by an independent international jury to the Chinese journalist Gao Yu.
"The jury was unanimous in choosing Gao Yu who has been fighting for years for press freedom in her country. She has paid, and is still paying, with her own freedom for her commitment to media independence which UNESCO supports," said Jury President and French journalist Claude Moisy, President of UNESCO's Advisory Group for Press Freedom.
According to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which nominated the Chinese journalist, Gao Yu began her career in 1979 as a reporter for the China News Service. In 1988 she became deputy editor-in-chief of Economics Weekly, run by dissident intellectuals. She also worked as a freelance journalist for several newspapers in China and Hong Kong. In November 1988, she published an article in Hong Kong's Mirror Monthly which the Mayor of Beijing called the "political programme" of the "turmoil and rebellion." He labelled Gao Yu an "enemy of the people." She was detained in 1989 following the Tiananmen protests and released 14 months later because of health problems. She was arrested again on October 2, 1993 and sentenced in November 1994 to six year imprisonment for "leaking state secrets."
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