Dawit Isaak Receives Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2017

Jakarta, InfoPublik – The peak event of the World Press Freedom Day 2017 held at Jakarta Convention Center was marked by prize-awarding ceremony of UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize and $25,000 prize.

This year, Dawit Isaak, an Eritrean journalist who later became Swedish citizen, has been selected to receive the 2017 Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. A year after Eritrea gained its independence in 1993, Dawit Isaak returned to his native country. He founded Setit, the first independent newspaper in Eritrea which became a very critical media against dictatorial rule. "If you have a chance to write, do it,'' he said.

In 2001, Isaak was detained without ever being on trial. Until now he is still locked behind bars in the city of Asmara, Eritrea. The award of Guillermo Cano was received by his daughter Bethelem Isaak.

This prestigious press award was named in an honour of a Colombian journalist who was killed by drug mafia on December 17, 1986 in Bogota. He was killed by a barrage of bullets in front of the El Espectador media office, where he worked.

Since 1997, UNESCO has been annually awarding Guillermo Cano award to journalists or media organizations anywhere in the world that maintain or promote press freedom even in the face of intimidation, threats, and danger - just like Cano who continued to practice his profession untill the last drop of his blood. He had fought crimes that threaten Colombian society.

In 2016, the Guillermo Cano Award was won by Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova who worked for Free Europe Radio. She exposed corruption in her country but the court of Azerbaijan Government sentenced her to 7.5 years in prison for abuse of power and avoid tax obligations.

While in 2015, Mazen Darwish, a journalist from Syria who was sentenced to three years of prisons by the Damascus regime for "promoting terrorism" won the 2015 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. "I request the authorities in Syria to release Darwish," said Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, at the World Press Freedom Day 2015 in Latvia. Yara Bader, Darwish's wife was present to receive the prize representing her husband.