Khadija Ismayilova to receive UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2016

Investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan on 8 April 2016 was chosen for the UNESCO or Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2016.

The Prize will be awarded during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day 3 May 2016 hosted by Finland.

An independent international jury of media professionals recommended Ismayilova in recognition of her outstanding contribution to press freedom in difficult circumstances.

Ismayilova, a freelance journalist and contributor to the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe, was detained in December 2014, and, in September 2015, was sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment on charges relating to abuse of power and tax evasion.

UNESCO or Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2016

The Prize was established by UNESCO’s Executive Board in 1997 to honour a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

It is funded by the Cano Foundation (Colombia) and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland). 

The prize includes 25000 US dollars cash Prize in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotá, on 17 December 1986.

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