Index Freedom of Expression Awards shortlist announce

The 7th annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression awards will be presented at LSO St Luke's, London, on 14 March 2007

A ‘barefoot lawyer’ from China, an American whistleblower who used YouTube to expose wrongdoing at Lockheed, an Italian filmmaker who took on Berlusconi’s government through satire and a Pakistani woman who took her rapists to court rather than kill herself have all been shortlisted for a prestigious Freedom of Expression Award by Index on Censorship

The 7th annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards will be presented at LSO St Luke's, London, on 14 March 2007

This year’s awards will be presented by Anna Ford, with a keynote speech from Jung Chang, bestselling author of Mao:The Untold Story and Wild Swans.

The Nominees are:

Index on Censorship/Hugo Young Award for Journalism 2007

This award, given in memory of Guardian columnist Hugo Young, goes to a journalist who has shown an outstanding commitment to journalistic integrity in defence of freedom of expression.

• Jayyab Abu Safia (Gaza): Jayyab has received death threats from Islamic fundamentalists for his refusal to stop airing Western music and discussing controversial subjects on his phone-in programme on Gaza FM, the only apolitical station in the region.

• Kareem Amer (Egypt): Kareem Amer is the pseudonym of 22-year old blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, who was recently sentenced to four years imprisonment for criticising Islam and President Mubarak.

• Trevor Ncube (Zimbabwe): Ncube’s tireless work in continuing to run the only independent newspapers in Zimbabwe while under constant attack from the government has been described as ‘incredibly inspiring’. Despite a number of personal attacks, the government has been unable to shut down Trevor’s newspapers or otherwise silence him.

• Carlos Lozano (Colombia): Carlos Lozano is the editor of the only opposition newspaper in Colombia, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. In May 2005 he received a death threat and had a car bomb placed in front of his offices. Carlos now lives under 24-hour armed guard.


The T.R. Fyvel Book Award 2007

• Being Arab (Samir Kassir): Samir Kassir was one of Lebanon’s best known journalists and historians. Kassir was a vocal critic of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. He was assassinated in a car bomb attack in Beirut on June 2nd 2005.

• In the Name of Honour (Mukhtar Mai): After a horrific gang rape in Pakistan Mukhtar Mai defied custom, which dictated she should kill herself. In an unprecedented act of courage she took her rapists to court. In this moving account, Mai allows her readers to look inside a world of ancient tribal justice, poverty and economic and sexual bondage.

• What is the What (Dave Eggers): The story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee of the Sudanese Civil War. Deng becomes one of the ‘Lost Boys’ searching for sanctuary, pursued by militias. Eventually he makes it to America where a very different struggle begins.

• In the Country of Men (Hisham Matar): A deeply affecting story of love and betrayal set against the political background of Libya. In the Country of Men goes to the heart of the cruelties and frailties of human experience.


The Index on Censorship Film Award 2007

An annual award that honours freedom of expression in film and documentary.

• Five Days (Dir. Yoav Shamir): With unique access, this film chronicles the Israel Defence Forces as they evacuate 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip in five days, to make way for 250,000 Palestinians.

• Iraq in Fragments (Dir. James Longley): Culled from 300 hours of footage taken over a two year period and presented with no scripted voice over, this documentary is at once expansive and intimate, harrowing and transcendent.

• Viva Zapatero (Dir. Sabina Guzzatani): When her satirical show was taken off air for criticising Silvio Berlusconi’s grip on the Italian media, Guzzatani took to the streets boldly confronting the people who made that decision. This ferociously funny film documents her efforts.

• Bamako (Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako): In this drama, a group of poverty stricken Africans set up court in Bamako to try international financial institutions the World Bank and the IMF. The film provides a platform from which millions of voiceless Africans can challenge the arrogance of these organisations.


The Bindman’s Law and Campaigning Award 2007

This award will be presented to campaigning human rights organisations or individual lawyers for their outstanding defence of freedom of expression.

• Yalemzewd Bekele (Ethiopia): Yalemzewd Bekele is a prominent human rights lawyer whose projects focus on civil society and women’s issues. Ethiopian authorities held Bekele for eight days in October. Amnesty International believed her to be at high risk of torture and mistreatment.

• Abdul-Rahman al Lahem (Saudi Arabia): Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem seeks out high-profile cases that highlight the problems in Shariah law in Saudi Arabia. His major cases have confronted the treatment of rape victims, freedom of religious expression and homosexuality.

• Stanislav Dmitrievsky and the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (Russia): Director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Stanislav Dmitrievsky was issued a two-year suspended prison sentence and a four-year probation period for ‘inciting interethnic hatred by using the mass media’. The verdict leaves him vulnerable to imprisonment for minor infractions, including ones provoked by government agents.

• Siphiwe Hlophe (Swaziland. Nominated by David Blunkett): In 1999, Siphiwe Hlophe discovered she was HIV positive. As a result, her husband left her and she lost an academic scholarship, but she reacted by co-founding an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and help other HIV/Aids victims.


Index on Censorship Whistleblower Award 2007

An award for a very particular kind of courage

• Chen Guangcheng (China): Chen Guangcheng is a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China. He’s known as the ‘barefoot lawyer’, a blind activist who has been hailed as representative of an emerging group of liberal Chinese intellectuals. In 2005, Chen gained international attention for publicising reports of forced abortions and sterilisations.

• Dr Jawad al Hashemy (Iraq): Dr Jawad Al Hashemy runs the Anti-Corruption Centre and campaigns tirelessly for a Freedom of Information Act in Iraq. His organisation set up a whistleblower hotline and he conducts his work in the face of huge personal risk and danger.

• Michael De Kort (USA): As an engineer for Lockheed Martin, Michael De Kort noticed faults in the US Coast Guard’s Deepwater programme. After being told to keep quiet because the programme was behind schedule, he broadcast his findings on YouTube. Although he lost his job his video alerted Congress to what turned out to be a complete lack of disclosure about problems the Coast Guard knew about for years.

• Christian Mounzéo (The Republic of Congo): Christian Mounzéo was arrested and released twice in 2006 and has been the victim of continuing harassment on the part of the Congo-Brazzaville authorities because of his outspoken criticism of government corruption and its mismanagement of oil revenues.


Judges

Professor Conor Gearty: is Rausing Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, a practicing barrister and professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics.

Mark Kermode: film critic and broadcaster on BBC Radio FiveLive and a regular contributor to BBC2’s Newsnight Review and The Culture Show. He writes for the Observer, and is a contributing editor to Sight and Sound and has authored two volumes for the British Film Institute Modern Classics series.

Kenan Malik: writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He is a presenter of Analysis on BBC Radio 4 and Senior Visting Fellow at the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey.

Ursula Owen OBE: co-founder of Virago Press, she was editor in chief and chief executive of Index on Censorship for 13 years. She was awarded an OBE in 2004 for services to international human rights.

Richard Sambrook: is Director of the BBC's Global News division, responsible for leading the BBC's international news services across radio, television and new media.

Dreda Say Mitchell: novelist and educationalist; her critically acclaimed first novel, Running Hot, was awarded the CWA’s John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best debut crime novel in 2005.