From the IWMF Executive Director
Supporting Courage in Journalism and Press Freedom

The 2002 Courage in Journalism Award winners braved war zones, defied totalitarian leaders and their henchmen, and risked their lives to report the news from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. They were honored for their bravery in October at ceremonies in New York, Washington, DC and Los Angeles.

A special tribute to the 10 journalists killed during and after September 11, 2001 was also a part of the program in New York and Los Angeles. “This year journalists have been observers of history, but we have also been a part of history and at times history’s pawns,” said Courage Chair Judy Woodruff of CNN. “We watched in shock and we hurt, too, as terrorists took away our feelings of safety.”

Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in February 2002, joined the tribute in New York with her son Adam, who was born after her husband’s death. “I still think today, more than ever, we [journalists] are the ones who can deny terroristic goals,” she said. “…When they spread lies, we say the truth. As they attempt to instill fear, we overcome it. Terrorists feed on people’s ignorance; we educate them through our reporting.”

All the Courage winners emphasized that good journalism must rely on the courage of its frontline representatives, who are the reporters who risk their lives to report the truth during conflict and dangerous times.

Mary McGrory of The Washington Post, who was honored with the IWMF’s Lifetime Achievement Award, paid tribute to the Courage winners in her acceptance remarks. “You’ve heard from the heroines of our business,” she said. “And they were simply wonderful, as you know, so I know that my profession is in the very best of hands.”

In addition to the ceremonies, the Courage winners also met with journalism students, gave press interviews and took part in panel discussions about their work.

Courage Award winners for 2002 were:

Kathy Gannon, Canada, Associated Press -

Canadian journalist Kathy Gannon had been reporting from Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than 15 years when that region erupted in war following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She was well prepared for covering the war in Afghanistan that followed.

Gannon was in Kabul on September 11, 2001, but was evacuated with other journalists shortly after. She was then the only Western journalist allowed back in the country for more than two weeks in late October. Her experience, courage and cunning resulted in stories that illuminated what was happening in Afghanistan. Gannon faced many terrifying moments as she evaded Western bombs and death threats from Afghans, some of whom referred to her as an “enemy of Islam.”

Accepting her Courage in Journalism Award, she warned that journalists must stick to their basic principles, particularly when politics might color reporting of a conflict, such as in Afghanistan. “In the end, as journalists, we have to be able to go out, and we have to be able to question, because, really, in the end, that is all we do,” she said. “And to me, I think that is what courage is for a journalist, the courage to ask questions.”

Following the Courage Awards, Gannon returned to Pakistan and Afghanistan to report for the AP. She is a 2003-2004 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Sandra Nyaira, Zimbabwe, The Daily News —

Since the beginning of her journalism career in 1995, Sandra Nyaira has made those in Zimbabawe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF, uncomfortable. In May 2001 she became her country’s only woman political editor, taking over that job at age 26. She immediately focused on government corruption, because, she explained, “there was so much rot within the executive that eroded the gains of independence that people in Zimbabwe were beginning to enjoy.”

Nyaira, along with two other Daily News colleagues, was charged with criminal defamation in 2001 because of a story the newspaper published about government corruption in connection with the building of Zimbabwe’s new airport. She also incurred the rath of Zimbabwe’s minister of information, Johnathan Moyo, who campaigned to discredit Nyaira. In return, she filed a libel suit against Moyo.

Nyaira’s bold actions won her the enmity of the ruling party, the ZANU-PF, and the so-called “War Veterans” — mostly young thugs — who harass people who don’t fall in line with the government. Attempts at silencing her also included threatening phone calls, including death threats.

Accepting her Courage Award, Nyaira said, “I will always go back to Zimbabwe to do what I have learned to do best, that is reporting and writing and giving people the other side of the story that the establishment would not want them to know.”

Following the Courage Awards, Nyaira spent a year at the City University in London, where she earned a master’s degree in international journalism. While she was there, the Zimbabwe government banned The Daily News from publishing. Nyaira’s colleagues have warned her that in her absence the government had placed her on its “wanted” list.

Anna Politkovskaya, Russia, Novaya Gazeta -

Despite repeated attempts by the Russian government to muzzle her, Anna Politkovskaya has been reporting on the Chechen conflict since 1999. While the majority of Russian journalists seem content to report the official government line about the Chechen conflict, Politkovskaya and her newspaper, the independent Novaya Gazeta, consider the story too important for propaganda.

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles to accept her Courage in Journalism Award there, Politkovskaya was called back to Moscow, where Chechen rebels holding some 800 hostages in a theater had asked her to help in negotiations for their freedom. (For Politkovskaya’s account from inside the theater, go to http://www.iwmf.org/features/anna/.) The Chechens trusted her because of her balanced treatment of their views.

While reporting on Chechnya, Politkovskaya has been detained by Russian military who threatened her with rape and execution. Her reporting about military excesses committed during the war have earned her death threats. For a time, she had to hire a bodyguard, and in the face of continuing threats, she was forced to leave Russia for several months in 2001. In exile in Vienna, she began writing her second book about Chechnyna, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (The Harvill Press, 2001).

Anna Politkovskaya continues to report on Chechnya for Novaya Gazeta. Her book, A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, was published in English by the University of Chicago Press in 2003.

Mary McGrory, United States, The Washington Post, Lifetime Achievement Award —

Mary McGrory, who died at age 85 in April 2004, had a career in journalism that included more than 60 years of humorous, thought-provoking commentary. She became a journalist when few women were given the opportunity to write anything more than society or home and garden pieces.

As one of the best known columnists in the United States, McGrory was known for masterfully tackling some of the most important events of the last half-century. In addition to the Army-McCarthy hearings, she wrote about Watergate, penned an eloquent lament about the death and funeral of President John F. Kennedy, was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and took President George W. Bush to task for his unilateral stance on Iraq. Her outspoken critique of his administration landed her on President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.”

A Boston native, McGrory’s first job in journalism was at the Boston Herald, where in 1941 she landed a job as the secretary-assistant to the book reviewer. In her spare time she also reviewed books and wrote pieces for the news section. In 1947, she moved to Washington, DC, and her next job as a book reviewer for The Washington Star, where she flourished under the tutelage of then national editor Newbold Noyes, Jr. McGrory broke into national commentary in 1954 when Noyes assigned her to cover the Army-McCarthy hearings that were investigating Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations that the U.S. Army was covering up communists in its ranks. Noyes told her to “add color and humor and flavor and charm to the news section,” recalled McGrory. She began her syndicated column in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for her commentary on Watergate. When The Star folded in 1981, she joined The Washington Post as a columnist.

While in Los Angeles to accept her Lifetime Achievement Award, Mary McGrory did reporting on the political climate leading to the November elections. She returned to her write her column at The Washington Post. In March 2003 she suffered a stroke; in January 2004 The Post announced her retirement.

Communicating for Press Freedom

“This is not the first time that [Liliane] Pierre-Paul has been the target of threats…”

The IWMF has made it policy to speak out when members of its worldwide network face threats to their press freedom. On May 12, 2003, for the second time in three years, the IWMF supported 1990 Courage in Journalism Award winner Liliane Pierre-Paul of Haiti. Three years ago, Pierre-Paul was put on a hit list because she reported accurately on the 2000 Haitian elections. In April, 2003, she again received death threats from political activists unhappy with her reporting on proposals that France pay reparations to Haiti to compensate for the sum that Haiti paid for its independence in 1838.

“[Liliane Pierre-Paul] is an honored and credible journalist,” wrote co-chairs Marcy McGinnis and Lynn Povich to Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrande Aristide. “Her ability – indeed, the ability of all Haitian journalists — to continue reporting the news without fear of threat is crucial to your nation’s standing in the world.”