Media group honors 4 newswomen from Tibet, Colombia, Tanzania and Mexico for their courage

[Judi Lynn]

Media group honors 4 newswomen from Tibet, Colombia, Tanzania and Mexico for their courage
By Associated Press
4:03 p.m. EDT, October 19, 2010

NEW YORK (AP) — An international media group is honoring four newswomen from Tibet, Colombia, Tanzania and Mexico for their courage in standing up to intimidation, threats and violence.

Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan writer, poet and blogger; Claudia Julieta Duque, an investigative radio reporter on Colombia who was abducted twice and repeatedly threatened; and freelancer Vicky Ntetema, who went undercover to investigate the killings of albinos in Tanzania, each received the 2010 Courage in Journalism Award on Tuesday from the International Women's Media Foundation.

The group also awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award to Alma Guillermoprieto, one of two reporters who broke the story of one of the worst massacres in modern Latin American history: the killing of 800 Salvadoran women, men and children by U.S.-trained soldiers.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-us-courage-in-journalism,0,3312993.story

[EFerrari]

1. El Mozote. From Wiki:

In the mid-1970s, she started her career as a journalist for The Guardian, moving later to the Washington Post. In January, 1982, Guillermoprieto, then based in Mexico City, was one of two journalists (the other was Raymond Bonner of The New York Times) who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December, 1981. With great hardship and at great personal risk, she was smuggled by FMLN rebels to visit the site approximately a month after the massacre took place. When the story broke simultaneously in the Post and Times on January 27, 1982, it was dismissed as propaganda by the Reagan administration. Subsequently, however, the details of the massacre as first reported by Guillermoprieto and Bonner were verified, with widespread repercussions.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Risking Death to Report the Truth

Risking Death to Report the Truth
By Kanya D'Almeida

NEW YORK, Oct 19, 2010 (IPS) - Alma Guillermoprieto was one of only two journalists to investigate rumours of the notorious massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador in December 1981. Because the slaughter of 1,000 unarmed civilians was perpetrated by the U.S.-backed Salvadorian Army, the Ronald Reagan administration attempted to discredit her work.

But Guillermoprieto refused to back down, and finally the U.S. government was forced to confirm her story.

On Tuesday, Guillermoprieto – along with three other extraordinary women – was honoured for her work at the 2010 Courage in Journalism Awards at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.

Organised by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), the awards pay homage to intrepid women across the world who continue to penetrate press barriers in order to report from the frontlines of their countries and communities.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53220