FY 2001-2002 Annual Report
Courage in Journalism Awards

Courage Award Winners Learn to Live with Terror

"The terrorists who wanted to put an end to my dreams failed, because even though I am burdened with profound pain, I have the firm conviction that I will persevere."

A little more than one month after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, more than 600 IWMF supporters gathered in New York to present the Courage in Journalism Awards to journalists who confront terror every day while reporting the news.

"As journalists we are finally wrestling with some of the same conflicts that have for so long confronted our reporter colleagues, men and women, in other countries," said Judy Woodruff of CNN, the chair of the Courage awards for 2001. "We are blessed to have with us today women are who are accustomed to covering terror, examples of the finest and most courageous sort of journalism practiced anywhere."

Courage in Journalism Award winners inspire their international colleagues with stories of bravery in the face of threat and intimidation. Their stories had particular resonance in 2001. Courage winners know what it is to live each day, each hour in danger. They know what it is like to appear on death lists. They know what it is like for their families to live in fear. They know the risks and they take them.

Each year, the IWMF holds Courage in Journalism awards ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles. In addition, the winners visit schools of journalism and meet with newspaper editorial boards to talk about their dangerous assignments. The International Women's Media Foundation has given 41 Courage in Journalism Awards since 1990. Recipients for 2001 were:

Amal Abbas - Sudan

Amal Abbas is a Sudanese editor with an uncompromising editorial eye and a knack for exposing government corruption. In April 1999, after writing for several newspapers and magazines in Sudan, Abbas became the only woman editor in chief of a newspaper in her country when she joined Al-Rai Al-Akher (Other Perspectives). Just one month later, Abbas became the target of political attacks.

Al-Rai Al-Akher was suspended many times and finally banned from publishing for an indefinite period. The newspaper's offense was reporting on a public political forum about the Sudanese civil war. The suspension was finally lifted in September 1999. In 2001, Abbas spent 36 hours in Omdurman Women's Prison because she published an article accusing an unnamed law official of misappropriating funds.

When Abbas printed a story accusing Khartoum government authorities of squandering funds, her newspaper was fined one billion Sudanese pounds (approximately $390,000), the heaviest fine ever imposed on a Sudanese newspaper. When she was unable to pay her fine, Abbas was sentenced to three months in prison. She was released after 17 days by the Appeals Court.

Amal Abbas was not able to fly to the United States to accept her Courage in Journalism Award. In her message to the IWMF she said, "My experience leading Al-Rai Al-Akher newspaper has been very tough and complicated. So many times we've faced difficulties. So many times we've been forced to shut down. I was summoned to the internal security office several times. I have been to prison. The only reason for all this suffering is just because we wrote about corruption in Khartoum."

Shortly after the awards ceremonies, she changed jobs and became editor in chief of Al-Horriyya, another independent daily newspaper in Khartoum.

Jineth Bedoya Lima -- Colombia

On May 25, 2000, Jineth Bedoya Lima, who was then 26 years old, stepped into a trap. A reporter for the Bogota daily, El Espectador, she went to Colombia's La Modelo prison to interview the leader of a gang of inmates from AUC, a right wing paramilitary group. She never made it inside. She almost didn't make it back alive.

While Bedoya was waiting to enter the prison, unknown assailants placed a drug-soaked cloth on her face and kidnapped her. They tortured and repeatedly raped the young reporter, while they described in detail how they were going to kill her colleagues.

Most of the journalists targeted by paramilitary and guerilla groups in Colombia end up dead, but Bedoya's attackers let her live. A taxi driver found her gagged by the side of the road. Two weeks later, she returned to work.

"I was overwhelmed by the presence of death," Bedoya said when she accepted the Courage in Journalism Award.

Since accepting the Courage in Journalism Award, Bedoya has written a book about Colombia. She also changed jobs. She is now a reporter for El Tiempo, another Bogota newspaper. She continues to report on both sides of the guerilla war in her country.

Carmen Gurruchaga - Spain

Nothing deters Carmen Gurruchaga, a political reporter for El Mundo, a Madrid-based daily, from covering the actions of ETA, the Basque separatist group. Not even a bomb.

On December 27, 1997, after Gurruchaga wrote an article identifying the location of an ETA extremist, the group retaliated by bombing her home while she was inside with her two sons. Her life changed completely after that. She left her home town of San Sebastian in the Basque country and moved to Madrid, where she was placed under 24-hour surveillance and traveled with two body guards.

The 1997 bombing was not the first, just the most deadly. Before moving to Madrid, Gurruchaga was forced to move both her home and her office several times because of constant threats. ETA continues to target Gurruchaga and other reporters who don't support their campaign of terror. With its deadly tactics, ETA poses the greatest threat to press freedom in Spain, said Gurruchaga, and the only way to combat them is to tell the truth.

In September 2001, Gurruchaga published her second book, The Chiefs of ETA. Accepting the Courage in Journalism Award, she said, "I'm so pleased because this award enables me to be here and to inform you about the state of terror with which ETA afflicts the representatives of the media in the Basque country and the rest of Spain. Right there, in the heart of the Western world, journalists live and work like many of their colleagues in Third World countries, with fear of being assassinated by a terrorist organization, simply for thinking differently from them."

Koky Dishon - Lifetime Achievement Award

Readers who turn to newspaper feature pages for lively, informative writing and news about the people, personalities and experiences that enrich lives, can thank Koky Dishon. For more than 60 years, she was a force for revolutionizing the feature pages in U.S. newspapers.

Reporting first captured Dishon's heart in high school, when she began reporting about babies and weddings for the Sunday Times Signal in Zanesville, Ohio. When Dishon entered journalism, men ran the world of newspapers, but she hardly noticed, because male editors kept promoting her.

In 1957 Dishon landed the job of society editor of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. She turned the society pages upside down by including auto events and local political rallies. After a stint at the Chicago Daily News, Dishon was recruited by the Chicago Tribune in 1975. In 1982, Dishon became the first woman to find her place on the Tribune's masthead.

Dishon later became an associate editor of the Tribune. Over the years, she created 17 new sections for the newspaper and endeavored to focus "on the real news for those who had not always been appreciated." After retiring from the Tribune in 1994, Dishon continued innovating, helping to create forward-reaching newspaper sections.

"I never thought I would live long enough to see a woman as the top editor of a major metropolitan newspaper," Dishon said on receiving the IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award. She exclaimed her love of newspapers and her "good fortune" in being a journalist with a mandate to "check it out."

"Now, in the wake of terrorism and continued fears, journalism is helping America redefine itself once again. It is a searing, day-by-day, hour-by-hour responsibility. We better never, ever forget how to do it honestly," she concluded.