CAIRO: Outspoken journalist Ibrahim Eissa received the 2011 Guardian Journalism Award, presented at the 11th Annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards, sponsored by SAGE, in London on Thursday.
Eissa was described as a “one-man barometer of Egypt’s struggle for political and civic freedom.”
“I come to you from a country where a free journalist had no option but to lose his job, his freedom, his life, or maybe his mind, should he decide to oppose the ruler,” he said in his acceptance speech, according to Al-Dostor newspaper.
“But I also come to you from a country where words created a revolution and where ink ran into rivers of people,” he said.
“On the land of Egypt, this statue of the ancient Egyptian Scribe representing the first writing of an article on Earth remained imprisoned and subdued, until finally 6,000 years later, he rose on January 25 to hail the fall of the Pharaoh,” he continued.
In the end, Eissa said, “I dedicate this prize to the people who died for freedom in Tahrir Square.”
During the crackdown on the media in Egypt that marred 2010, Eissa was fired from his position as editor-in-chief of Al-Dostor newspaper in October.
The decision came right after his television show on a private satellite channel was also halted, in the run-up to parliamentary elections which were to be held one month later in November.
“The regime is making a clear statement, instead of preventing vote rigging they banned speaking out against it … I feel sorry for the Egyptian press and media,” Eissa told the press at the time.
In 2008, Eissa received a presidential pardon after being convicted on charges of publishing “false information…likely to damage public interest and security,” for which he was sentenced to two months in prison for articles he wrote in August 2007 which questioned the health of President Hosni Mubarak.
In the same year he received the Gebran Tueni Award, an annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers that honors an editor or publisher in the Arab region.
The other nominee for the Guardian Journalism Award this year was Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the co-founder of the Thai online news site Prachatai (“Thai People”), and who is currently on trial, facing up to 50 years in jail, for comments posted on Prachatai that were critical of the monarchy.
When announcing the nominees for the Guardian Journalism Award, the judge said, “In the era of new media, some might think traditional journalism is yesterday’s story, but this year’s entries prove that’s not so. Today’s Facebookers and Tweeters are building on the bravery and dedicated investigative skills of old-school journalists, many of whom still face persecution. I’m struck by how those on this year’s shortlist don’t give up, whatever the forces brought to bear against them. When their publication is closed down, they start a new one. When released from prison, they start reporting where they left off. They are an inspiration.”
