Three jailed Iranian women journalists win UN press freedom prizes

Tags: Awards

The United Nations announced on 2nd May that its premier prize for press freedom has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian female journalists “for their commitment to truth and accountability.”

An overview of the news

• Award winners include Niloufer Hamidi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Nargis Mohammadi.

• Neelofer had informed people about 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had died in September last year, through a news item.

• Amini was arrested by the ethics police for not wearing a headscarf properly.

• Elaheh wrote about Amini's funeral.

• Amini's death triggered months of protests in Iran's cities.

• The third winner, Nargis Mohammadi, worked for many years as a journalist and is one of Iran's most prominent activists.

UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize

• This award was started in 1997.

• The award is given to a person, organization or institution who, at the risk of life, has made an outstanding contribution to the defense and, or promotion of freedom of the press, anywhere in the world.

• The award was established at the initiative of the Executive Board of UNESCO.

• The award is formally presented by UNESCO on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

• The award is named in honor of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated on 17 December 1986 in front of the office of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia.