Iranian journalist Jila Baniyaghoob will receive this year’s International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award for her reporting on political and social oppression and her support of women’s rights and freedom of the press in Iran. Baniyaghoob currently works as a freelance reporter and editor-in-chief of the website Kanoon Zanan Irani (Focus on Iranian Women) and is one of three recipients of the award announced yesterday. The other recipients are Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip and Cameroonian journalist Agnes Taile.
Baniyaghoob has been fired repeatedly for refusing to censor her work and has been targeted by the Iranian government. She has been arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and had her media outlets shut down by the government.
Judy Woodruff, chair of the Courage in Journalism Awards said in a press release “These remarkable journalists have chosen to report the news in three countries where pursuit of the truth puts them at risk for arrest, physical attacks and even death….Still, they have consistently, for many years, chosen to risk their lives and livelihoods in pursuing stories that illuminate the lives of people in their countries and enlighten us all.”
