An investigative journalist from Colombia who has been robbed and kidnapped and who has received threats against her life and that of her daughter; a Tibetan journalist who is one of China's best known bloggers, even though she is under constant scrutiny from the government, and a Tanzanian journalist whose investigations into a series of murders have put her in danger are winners of the 2010 International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Awards.
"The work that these remarkable journalists do brings to light the dark corners of our globe," said Judy Woodruff of the PBS News Hour, IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards chair. "They risk everything, including their livelihoods, their safety and the safety of their families, to unearth the truth and enlighten us all."
Ntetema uncovered one of her country's horrible secrets when she began to investigate the brutal killings of albinos and their families. Working undercover, she learned that witchdoctors were murdering albinos to dismember their bodies and sell potions made out of their hair, legs and arms. Customers were told the potions would bring them good fortune.
Witchdoctors are especially dangerous because they hold powerful positions in African traditional society, often use hired killers and are protected by local police. Ntetema has received death threats since she started her reporting. She has twice left Tanzania for her safety. She now reports wearing hijab to disguise her identity and often travels with a security guard. According to the BBC, some 170 witchdoctors have been arrested for the killings.
Duque tackles some of the most difficult and dangerous stories in Colombia, including child trafficking, illegal adoption, infiltration of paramilitary groups into Colombian state institutions, human rights violations, and the murder of political humorist and journalist Jaime Garzón. She first received death threats more than 10 years ago and has been constantly harassed by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS, the Colombian security service), who assigned bodyguards to protect her, but whose real assignment was to spy on her.
Her relentless investigation into the murder of Garzón led to the arrest and conviction of former paramilitary commander Carlos Castaño. She has had to go into exile three times and her daughter has also received death threats.
Tsering Woeser, 43, Beijing-based Tibetan freelance writer, blogger for the site Invisible Tibet and contributor to Radio Free Asia
For more than eight years, since the publication of her book Notes on Tibet, Woeser has been under constant scrutiny by Chinese authorities. She was brought to Beijing for "re-education" and told she would be fired from her job with Tibetan Literature, a government-controlled journal, unless she changed her point of view. She refused. When she returned to Tibet, she was fired.
She then moved back to Beijing, where, in 2008, she was interrogated and placed under house arrest. Woeser continues to live in Beijing and report about human rights abuses in Tibet, but her work is published only by media outside mainland China. Sources she has relied on for years will no longer speak to her for fear of retaliation; anyone who dares to meet with her is likely to be interrogated by police. Still, she remains determined to inform the world about the struggles of the Tibetan people.
The IWMF also announced that it will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Alma Guillermoprieto, 60, a Mexican journalist whose articles have illuminated Latin America for her readers. A contributor to the British-based Guardian newspaper, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek and The New Yorker, she has covered Argentina's "dirty war," post-Sandinista Nicaragua, the "Shining Path" rebels in Peru, the Colombian civil war and the Mexican drug wars.
In 1982, she was one of only two reporters to investigate rumors of mass killings perpetrated by the US-supported Salvadoran army in El Mozote, El Salvador. When she published her reports in The Washington Post,
The IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards honuors women journalists who have shown extraordinary strength of character and integrity while reporting the news under dangerous or difficult circumstances. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises a woman journalist who has a pioneering spirit and whose determination has paved the way for women in the news media. Including this year's honorees, 69 journalists have won Courage Awards and 19 journalists have been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards. The awards will be presented at ceremonies in New York on 19 October 2010 and in Los Angeles on 21 October 2010.
For more information, go to www.iwmf.org.
