Reporters Without Borders: Press Freedom Award Presented
Renowned Syrian cartoonist Ali Farsat and the Burmese weekly magazine *Weekly Eleven News* have been awarded this year's Press Freedom Prize by the journalists' organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
«We are honoring a courageous journalist who has fallen victim to the bloody repression of an archaic system,» said RSF President Jean-François Julliard on Thursday during a ceremony in Paris. Ali Farsat’s cartoons exposed the excesses of a regime cornered. At the same time, they encouraged Syrians to demand their right to freedom of expression. «Weekly Eleven News» was chosen to honor a magazine «that never backed down in the face of censorship,» Julliard continued. Its editorial stance consistently opposed the military junta in Burma, putting its editors at risk of imprisonment.
Since 1992, RSF has awarded the Press Freedom Prize to one journalist and one media outlet each year. The winners are selected by a jury composed of journalists and human rights activists. This year, the Paris evening newspaper *Le Monde* has joined the initiative.
Ali Farsat had already been awarded this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament at the end of October, along with four other Arab Spring activists. In his cartoons, he repeatedly targeted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and government officials. In August, he was brutally beaten by masked gunmen in the heart of Damascus. The official award ceremony for the Sakharov Prize is scheduled for next Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. (SDA)
