Courage Awards: 2000 Courage Award Winners
Marie Colvin, United Kingdom
Agnes Nindorera, Burundi
Zamira Sydykova, Kyrgyzstan
Marie Colvin has fearlessly reported from behind the front lines of nearly every violent conflict in the world in the last 15 years. In 2000, she brought readers of The Sunday Times closer to conflicts in Kosovo, East Timor and Chechnya.
At great personal risk, Colvin has ventured into the heart of the action, emerging with stories of the victims at the center of the world's conflicts. Keenly aware of the power of the media to show the fundamental horrors of war, she has employed that power to help protect those who are most vulnerable.
In telling her stories, Colvin has frequently risked her own life. While covering the war in East Timor, she fought to remain behind in the embattled UN refugee compound after journalists were asked to leave or risk being murdered. She insisted that a media presence was crucial to ensure the protection of refugees. In Kosovo, she shared trenches and went on patrol with the Kosovo Liberation Army as it engaged Serbian military forces.
Last December in Chechnya, Colvin faced even greater danger when, along with a group of Chechen rebels, she was repeatedly attacked by Russian jet fighters. As she attempted to leave the Chechen rebel camp she was forced to walk for days through desolate, ice-covered mountains, fending off both Caucasian bandits and Russian paratroopers. Though the fearless Colvin admits her experience was harrowing, she also says that it gave her the insight she needed to write forceful, realistic reports on the daily struggles of Chechens fleeing the war.
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In Burundi, independent journalists covering the ongoing six-year civil war risk death threats from both sides of the conflict. Still, freelance journalist Agnes Nindorera broadcasts what she sees, despite escalating threats to her life. She pursues the story of a civil war in which 200,000 people have died, caught in a conflict between Tutsi-dominated Burundian government forces and Hutu rebels.
Filing stories each day for Voice of America and Agence France Presse, Nindorera brings the world objective accounts of peace negotiations, the progress of the conflict and, most important, the story of what the war is doing to the people of Burundi.
Nindorera's reports on human rights violations by all factions have generated considerable international attention. But as her reward for more than four years of solid journalism, Nindorera has not had one day of peace. She has been arrested numerous times. Her home has been ransacked, her equipment confiscated by the government, and she has been forced to move to avoid harassment.
In one frightening personal encounter, a high-level government official told Nindorera that she would be shot in the head if she continued to report the news. Undeterred, she continues her work, bringing the war to the world while maintaining the highest professional standards and journalistic integrity.
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Zamira Sydykova, editor-in-chief of Res Publica, an independent newspaper founded in Kyrgyzstan in the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, is a leader in the independent media in Central Asia.
One of the few women to head a newspaper in the region, she has faced a barrage of legal maneuverings designed to stifle her reporting, which has been critical of government officials. Though Kyrgyzstan's president claims to support an open and independent media, his government has used threat of legal action to undermine independent media.
The government's campaign to shut down Sydykova's paper began in 1993. In 1995, she was charged with slandering the president, because she wrote about his foreign bank accounts. As a result, she was banned from working as a journalist for 18 months. In 1997, she was charged with criminal libel for publishing articles alleging corruption in a state-run gold mining company. After a month in a labor camp, she was released, but was banned from working for another 18 months.
In 2000, Res Publica and Sydykova were again found guilty of libel. The resulting fines equaled the annual budget of the paper. Res Publica was forced to close for several months. Sydykova appealed for early disbursement of the $2,000 prize which accompanies the Courage in Journalism Award and paid her fine. Res Publica is again publishing.
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