9th OSCE Journalism and Democracy Prize goes to Committee to Protect Journalists

MAASTRICHT, 1 December 2003- The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will receive the 9th OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy, the President of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, Bruce George, has announced today.

"Granting CPJ this honour is a strong statement by the Parliamentary Assembly in support of a courageous and professional organization which defends the right of journalists to report news without fear of reprisal," said President George, who is attending the OSCE Ministerial Council in the Dutch town of Maastricht.

He also announced that the Prize will be presented at the OSCE PA Winter Meeting in Vienna on 19 February 2004.

The CPJ (www.cpj.org) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the global defence of press freedom, founded in 1981. It works in more than 120 countries, many of which suffer under repressive regimes, debilitating civil war or other problems that harm press freedom and democracy.

The $20,000 award is given annually by the OSCE PA to journalists, or groups of journalists, who have, through their work, promoted the principles of free journalism as laid down in the OSCE Budapest Declaration of 1994.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly established the Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 1996, on the initiative of Freimut Duve, a former member of the German Bundestag and the current OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

The Prize was awarded in 1996 to Adam Michnik, in 1997 to "Reporters sans frontières", in 1998 to Timothy Garton Ash, in 1999 to Christiane Amanpour, in 2000 to Andrei Babitsky and in 2001 posthumously to both Georgiy Gongadze and José Luis López de Lacalle. In 2002 the Prize was shared between Friedrich Orter and the Pavel Sheremet and this year it was awarded to Anna Politkovskaya.

The Annual Prize for Journalism and Democracy has been made possible by the dedicated and generous assistance of the following donors: Bertelsmann AG, Germany; Bonnier Group, Sweden; and Shibsted ASA, Norway.