RSF honours female Asian journalists for courage under fire
LONDON: An Indian journalist and a Filipina campaigner won Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Awards on Thursday for their bravery in holding governments to account in the face of persistent threats.
Freelance reporter Swati Chaturvedi and social media campaigner Inday Espina-Varona were honoured at the RSF annual awards, being staged in London for the first time.
Maltese journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia, who has carried on the work of his mother Daphne, murdered for exposing corruption on the Mediterranean island, was also honoured at the ceremony at the Getty Images Gallery.
Established in 1985 to defend and promote press freedom, Parisbased RSF has been presenting its yearly awards since 1992.
Previous winners include the late Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet.
Chaturvedi won the Prize for Courage, awarded for journalism in a hostile environment.
She has faced online harassment campaigns after exposing what she calls a ‘troll army’ operating for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Veteran journalist EspinaVarona founded a social media women’s rights campaign in response to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments on women.
“After a particularly hardhitting column, I find 50 to 80 private messages calling me a liar, an ugly woman, and mostly these are sexist attacks,” she told AFP.
“The slurs don’t really bother me but the threats that say ‘we know where you live, we’ll see if you are as brave as you think’ – that bothers me because it also happens to other journalists.”
She won the Prize for Independence, awarded to reporters for resisting pressure in carrying out their work.
Caruana Galizia won the Prize for Impact, awarded for work that has led to an increase in awareness of journalistic freedom. — AFP