The Golden Pen of Freedom Award is an annual international journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 award established in 1961, given by the World Association of Newspapers

World Association of Newspapers

The World Association of Newspapers is a non-profit, non-governmental organization made up of 76 national newspaper associations, 12 news agencies, 10 regional press organisations and individual newspaper executives in 100 countries...

 to individuals or organisations. The stated purpose of the award is "to recognise the outstanding action, in writing or deed, of an individual, a group or an institution in the cause of press freedom". One of the objectives of the award is to "to turn the spotlight of public attention on repressive governments and journalists who fight them" and to afford journalists a degree of protection against further persecution

The Award is presented each year at the opening ceremony of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum.

Award winners

Year	Winner	Country
1961	Ahmet Emin Yalman Ahmet Emin Yalman Ahmet Emin Yalman , Turkish journalist and author.Ahmet Emin Yalman was born in 1888 in Thessaloniki. He was the founder and for many years the editor of the influential Turkish nationalist newspaper Vatan, the official newspaper of the Committee of Union and Progress....	Turkey
1963	Sein Win Sein Win Dr. Sein Win is Chairman of National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, a "government in exile". And they made him Unofficial Prime Minister of the Union of Burma, elected by the 1990 People's Assembly known as the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma – a...	Burma
1964	Gabriel Makoso	Congo
1965	Esmond Wickremesing	Sri Lanka
1966	Jules Dubois Jules Dubois Jules Dubois was a Latin America correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and chairman of the Inter-American Press Association's press freedom committee, which he helped to organize in 1951...	USA
1967	Mochtar Lubis Mochtar Lubis Mochtar Lubis was an Indonesian Batak journalist and novelist who co-founded Indonesia Raya. His novel Senja di Jakarta was the first Indonesian novel to be translated into English. He was a critic of Sukarno and was imprisoned by him...	Indonesia
1968	Christos Lambrakis Christos Lambrakis Christos Dimitrios Lambrakis was the owner of Lambrakis Press Group , one of the largest newspaper groups in Greece, and arguably the most influential....	Greece
1969	The Czechoslovak press Mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia The mass media in Communist Czechoslovakia was controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . Private ownership of any publication or agency of the mass media was generally forbidden, although churches and other organizations published small periodicals and newspapers...	Czechoslovakia
1970	Alberto Gainza Paz	Argentina
1972	Hubert Beuve-Méry Hubert Beuve-Méry Hubert Beuve-Méry founded Le Monde in 1944 at the behest of Charles de Gaulle. Following the liberation of France Beuve-Méry built Le Monde from the ruins of Le Temps using its offices, printing presses, masthead and those staff members who had not collaborated with the Germans.He retired his...	France
1973	Anton Betz	Germany
1974	Julio de Mesquita Neto	Brazil
1975	Sang-Man Kim	South Korea
1976	Raul Régo	Portugal
1977	Robert High Lilley	Northern Ireland
1978	Donald Woods Donald Woods Donald James Woods, CBE was a white South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist.As editor of the Daily Dispatch from 1965 to 1977, he befriended Steve Biko, leader of the anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement, and was banned by the government soon after Biko's death, which had been... , Percy Qoboza Percy Qoboza Percy Peter Tshidiso Qoboza was an influential black South African journalist, author, and outspoken critic of the apartheid government in South Africa during the early periods of world recognition of the problems evident in the racially divided land...	South Africa
1979	Claude Bellanger (posthumous)	France
1980	Jacobo Timerman Jacobo Timerman Jacobo Timerman was an Argentine publisher, journalist, and author who was persecuted and honored for confronting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War...	Argentina
1981	José Javier Uranga	Spain
1982	P. Joaquin Chamorro Barrios	Nicaragua
1985	Joaquin Roces	Philippines
1986	Anthony Heard	South Africa
1987	Juan Pablo Cárdenas	Chile
1988	Naji al-Ali Naji al-Ali Naji Salim al-Ali was a Palestinian cartoonist, noted for the political criticism of Israel in his works.He drew over 40,000 cartoons, which often reflected Palestinian and Arab public opinion and were sharply critical commentaries on Palestinian and Arab politics and political leaders...  (posthumous)	Palestinian territories
1989	Sergei Grigoryants	Soviet Union
1990	Luis Gabriel Cano	Colombia
1991	Gitobu Imanyara Gitobu Imanyara Gitobu Imanyara is a Kenyan human rights lawyer, journalist, and politician.-Biography:After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987...	Kenya
1992	Dai Qing Dai Qing Dai Qing, born in August 1941, is a journalist and activist for China-related issues; most significantly against the Three Gorges Dam Project. Dai is also an author who has published many influential books, articles, and journals.-Early life:Dai, also called Fu Ning , was born in Chongqing,...	China
1993	Pius Njawe Pius Njawe Pius Njawé was a Cameroonian journalist and director of Le Messager as well as Le Messager Populi. He had been known as one of the strongest advocates for press freedom in Africa beginning with his founding of Le Messager in 1979.-Early career:At the age of 19, he helped reveal the news oil had...	Cameroon
1994	Omar Belhouchet Omar Belhouchet Omar Belhouchet is an Algerian journalist who has been prosecuted by his government on numerous occasions. He publishes the daily newspaper El Watan , which he founded in 1990 after he and nineteen colleagues left the FLN government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid .-Journalism:After receiving a...	Algeria
1995	Gao Yu	China
1996	Yndamiro Restano Díaz	Cuba
1997	Naša borba, Feral Tribune Feral Tribune Feral Tribune was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in Nedjeljna Dalmacija before evolving into an independent satirical weekly paper in 1993... , Oslobođenje	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzogovina
1998	Doan Viet Hoat,	Vietnam
1999	Faraj Sarkohi Faraj Sarkohi Faraj Sarkohi , is an Iranian literature critic Literary criticism and journalist. He was cofounder and Editor in chief of the Iranian magazine Adineh....	Iran
2000	Nizar Nayouf	Syria
2001	Win Tin, San San Nweh San San Nweh San San Nweh is a noted Burmese writer and journalist. She was jailed for nearly seven years by the Burmese military junta for her "anti-government intentions"...	Burma
2002	Geoffrey Nyarota Geoffrey Nyarota Geoffrey Nyarota is an award-winning Zimbabwean journalist and author. He is the managing editor of , an online newspaper. His first book, Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman, was published by Zebra Press of South Africa in 2006....	Zimbabwe
2003	Belarusian Association of Journalists Belarusian Association of Journalists The Belarusian Association of Journalists is a Belarusian non-governmental organisation aimed at ensuring freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism" .It was founded in 1995...	Belarus
2004	Ruslan Sharipov	Uzbekistan
2005	Mahjoub Mohamed Salih Mahjoub Mohamed Salih Mahjoub Mohamed Salih is a journalist from Sudan, which the World Association of Newspapers calls "one of the most restrictive media environments on the African continent". He was awarded the 2005 Golden Pen of Freedom.-Biography:...	Sudan
2006	Akbar Ganji Akbar Ganji Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist and writer. He has been described as "Iran’s preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly...	Iran
2007	Shi Tao Shi Tao Shi Tao is a mainland Chinese journalist, writer and poet, who in 2005 was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years for releasing a document of the Communist Party to an overseas Chinese democracy site after Yahoo! China provided his personal details to the Chinese government.-Brief history:Shi Tao...	China
2008	Li Changqing	China
2009	Najam Sethi Najam Sethi Najam Sethi is an award-winning Pakistani journalist and the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a Lahore-based political weekly. He was previously the editor of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal newspapers. He also hosts a popular political program in Urdu, called Aapas ki Baat, on GEO News...	Pakistan
2010	Ahmad Zeidabadi Ahmad Zeidabadi Ahmad Zeidabadi is an Iranian journalist, academic, writer and political analyst and the secretary general of Office for Strengthening Unity. He is one of the notable figures of the Iranian reform movement....	Iran
2011	Dawit Isaak Dawit Isaak - External links :*...	Eritrea/Sweden

External links

• Golden Pen of Freedom Award