Israeli Journalist, Amira Hass, is this year's recipient of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Miss Hass has been recognised for her efforts in reporting the facts on the Palestinian territories for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz.
She is the first and only Israeli journalist living in the Palestinian territories. She moved to Gaza in December 1993 after the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian agreements and settled in Ramallah in the West Bank in 1997.
Despite restrictions from both Israeli military authorities and from the Palestinian authorities, Miss Hass has been filing reports about the daily lives and hardships of the Palestinians. Her independent and critical reporting on the policies of both Israel and the Palestinians has exposed her to pressure from both sides.
Miss Hass' selection has been lauded by UNESCO Director General, Koïchiro Matsuura. "Amira Hass has been showing outstanding professional commitment and independence, as well as personal courage, over the past decade. If peace is to be established between the Israelis and Palestinians it will be thanks to people like Miss Hass who are able to look at the facts and understand them," she said.
The international jury, chaired by Jamaica's Oliver Clarke, Chairman of Gleaner Company Limited, made the selection. "Over the past 10 years, Amira Hass has shown exemplary courage and professionalism in working under pressure to deliver the truth," Mr. Clarke said.
A child of Holocaust survivors, Miss Hass was born in Jerusalem in 1956 and studied history in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. After working as a teacher, she began her journalistic career in 1989 as a staff editor at Ha'aretz and started writing about the Palestinian territories in 1991, undaunted by danger and criticism from both Israelis and Palestinians.
The US$25,000 prize is awarded each year on the recommendation of an independent jury of media professionals from all over the world. The prize was created by UNESCO's Executive Board to honour the work of an individual, organization or institution defending or promoting freedom of expression anywhere in the world.
The prize is named after Colombian Journalist, Guillermo Cano, who was murdered in 1987 for criticizing activities of his country's powerful drug cartel. The previous Journalists who won the World Press Freedom Prize are: Geoffrey Nyarota from Zimbabwe, 2002; imprisoned Journalist, U Win Tin of Myanmar, 2001; Nizar Nayyouf of Syria, 2000; Jesus Blacornelas of Mexico, 1999; Christina Anyanwu of Nigeria, 1998 and Gao Yu of China, 1997.
"This is a very prestigious award. Amira Hass, the person who won the award this year, while she has not lost her life, she has been threatened and placed under tremendous pressure at times for trying to report truthfully, reality as it is portrayed to her," Helen-Marie Gosselin, Director of the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean told JIS News this week.
Governor-General, His Excellency, the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke, will present the prize to Miss Hass at a special ceremony to be held at King's House on May 2 this year.
This presentation will coincide with the two-day international conference to be hosted by UNESCO at the Jamaica Conference Centre from May 2 to 3 in observation of World Press Freedom Day to be celebrated on May 3.