IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE - INTERNATIONAL

27 May 2002

Geoffrey Nyarota awarded WAN's annual press freedom prize

SOURCE: World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Paris

**For further information on Nyarota's most recent arrest, see IFEX alerts
of 22, 8, 7, 3 and 2 May 2002**

(WAN/IFEX) - The following is a WAN press release:

Bruges, Belgium, 27 May 2002

The Golden Pen of Freedom

The World Association of Newspapers on Monday awarded its annual press
freedom prize, the 2002 Golden Pen of Freedom, to Geoffrey Nyarota, Editor
of the Daily News in Zimbabwe, in recognition of his outstanding service to
the cause of press freedom in the face of constant persecution.

"I receive this award today on behalf of the beleaguered and much terrorised
journalists of Zimbabwe," said Mr Nyarota, in accepting the award just one
week after he was arrested and briefly jailed in a continuing campaign of
government harassment.

"It is my very sincere hope, nay, my fervent prayer that in the
not-too-distant future the people of Zimbabwe will collectively receive a
major media award befitting of our once prosperous national genuine press,"
he said.

The presentation was made during the opening ceremonies of the 55th World
Newspaper Congress and 9th World Editors Forum, which drew 900 newspaper
publishers, senior executives, and editors from 79 countries to Belgium for
the four-day annual meetings of the world's press.

Mr Nyarota, 50, is Editor-in-Chief of the privately-owned Daily News, which
was launched in 1999 and has become the largest circulating daily newspaper
in Zimbabwe with sales of more than 100,000 copies per day. Its most serious
rival, the government-controlled Herald, has seen its circulation decline
from more than 150,000 to about 60,000 a day over the same period.

The newspaper achieved its success with independent coverage and
investigative reporting of corruption, human rights abuses and economic
mismanagement. That has brought down the wrath of the government and its
supporters.

A bomb destroyed the printing press of the Daily News last year and its
offices were attacked in April 2000. Its editors and reporters have been
arrested on numerous occasions and a reported plot to kill Mr Nyarota failed
last year.

Most recently, Mr Nyarota was arrested and briefly detained on 20 May on
allegations of publishing "falsehoods" and violating the draconian Access to
Information and Protection Act.

"It has become almost every week that Mr Nyarota himself or one of his
reporters at the Daily News have to spend the night in jail, on some false
accusation from the authorities or from hired provocateurs," said Gloria
Brown Anderson, President of the World Editors Forum, who presented the
award.

"Geoffrey Nyarota has been tireless in denouncing corruption and criminal
activities among top government officials in his country despite two bomb
attacks against his paper and several death threats against himself," she
said. "With a quiet but unyielding determination, he has put his newspapers
at the forefront of the battle to keep an independent and critical press
alive in Zimbabwe."

Mr Nyarota rose to prominence in Zimbabwe when he was appointed editor of
the Bulawayo daily The Chronicle in 1983, three years after Robert Mugabe
had been elected president.

In a tense and violent political climate, The Chronicle was one of the few
Zimbabwean newspapers to pursue investigations into government corruption.
When Mr Nyarota exposed the "Willowgate" scandal, forcing five cabinet
ministers to resign, he was removed from his editorial position by his
company, Zimbabwe Newspapers, for his "own safety."

Mr Nyarota became Editor for the weekly Financial Gazette in 1991 but was
dismissed in a dispute over editorial control of the paper. He then joined
the Nordic School of Journalism in Maputo, Mozambique, and travelled and
taught extensively in southern Africa. He returned to Zimbabwe in 1998 with
the formation of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, which was soon to launch
the Daily News.

He is also the 2002 laureate of the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press
Freedom Prize.

WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry, has awarded the
Golden Pen annually since 1961. Past winners include Argentina's Jacobo
Timerman (1980), Russia's Sergei Grigoryants (1989), China's Gao Yu (1995),
and Vietnam's Doan Viet Hoat (1998). The 2001 winners were San San Nweh and
U Win Tin of Burma.

Editors: Photos of Geoffrey Nyarota are available for use from the WAN web
site, http://www.wan-press.org/congress.forum/photos.html or by request.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry,
defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000
newspapers; its membership includes 71 national newspaper associations,
individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 14 news agencies and nine
regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 25 rue
d'Astorg, 75008 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49
48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: [email protected]. Internet:
http://www.wan-press.org

The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility
of WAN. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
WAN.
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