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Indian journalist Malini Subramaniam was recently conferred with the International Press Freedom Awards given by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the US. She has been honored for her reporting from the Naxal-infested Bastar area and for the commitment to a free press.

Ms. Subramaniam extensively reported on the abuses by police and security forces, sexual violence against women, the jailing of minors, shutdown of schools, extrajudicial killings, and threats against journalists in the Naxal-infested region in Chhattisgarh. She is a regular contributor to the news website Scroll.in.

“She has been interrogated, surveilled, and harassed by police and members of a pro-police vigilante group in connection with her critical coverage of human rights abuses and politics. Police have attempted to malign her and label her as a Maoist agent,” it said.

She is among the four journalists selected by the Committee to Protect Journalists for this year’s award. Others are Oscar Martinez (El Salvador), Can Dundar (Turkey) and Abou Zeid (Egypt).

“These four brave journalists have risked their freedom–and their lives–to report to their societies and the global community about critical news events,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Joel Simon. The CPJ executive director Joel Simon added that the threats against journalism are increasing around the world.

The International Press Freedom Award (IPFA) honors journalists or their publications around the world for showing courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats or imprisonment. The award, established in 1991 is administered by the independent NGO, the CPJ based in New York, the US. The NGO seeks to focus local and international media coverage on countries where press freedom violations are particularly staid.

 

by Ashwani Srivastava

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