Washington
-- Investigative reporter Ignacio Gomez
of Colombia is one of four journalists who
are winners of 2002 International Press
Freedom awards from the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In a formal statement, the CPJ said that
Gomez is being honored for untangling a
complex web of violent conspiracies in Colombia
despite
the fact that he routinely receives death
threats and narrowly escaped a kidnapping
attempt. The CPJ is a non-profit, non-partisan
organization dedicated to global defense
of press freedom.
In the last decade, 29 Colombian journalists
have been killed, making Colombia one of
the world's most dangerous countries in
which to
practice journalism, the CPJ said. In 1996,
Gomez helped establish a Colombian press
freedom organization, The Foundation for
Liberty of
the Press, and served as its executive director
until 2001.
Gomez has been forced into exile twice --
once in 1989, and again in 2000 after he
published a report linking Colombian paramilitary
leader
Carlos Castano to a 1997 massacre in the
village of Mapiripan. A few months after
that story was published, Gomez was nearly
abducted while he was entering a taxi in
Bogota.
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted
Castano in September on drug trafficking
charges and seeks his extradition to the
United States.
Castano is the leader of the Colombian paramilitary
group known as the United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia (AUC), which the United States
accuses of trafficking since 1997 more than
17 tons of cocaine into the United States
and Europe.
Also honored by the CPJ is free-lance journalist
Tipu Sultan from Bangladesh, who was savagely
beaten with iron bars and hockey sticks
and left for dead after writing an article
in 2001 about a corrupt politician.
Another honoree is Irina Petrushova, founder
and editor-in-chief of the business weekly
Respublika in Kazakhstan. Petrushova's newspaper
exposes government corruption, which led
to death threats against her and the burning
down of the paper's offices.
Also honored is Fesshaye Yohannes of Eritrea,
who was imprisoned with nine other journalists
after authorities banned all of Eritrea's
independent newspapers for "jeopardizing
national unity." The CPJ said he is
being held incommunicado without charges,
and that his paper,
Setit, covered social problems, including
poverty, prostitution, and Eritrea's lack
of facilities to care for handicapped war
veterans.
The CPJ also said it will honor the late
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
with a lifetime achievement award. Pearl
was kidnapped
and murdered earlier in 2002 while working
on a story in Karachi, Pakistan.
The awards will be presented at a November
26 ceremony in New York.
David Laventhol, chairman of CPJ's board
of directors, said: "Now, more than
ever, journalists around the world face
personal danger as
they try to report the truth. CPJ is pleased
to recognize these journalist heroes. They
set an example for all of us."
(The Washington File is a product of the
Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of
State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
