Journalists from Georgia, India, Mexico and Togo will be honored this fall at the 2023 International Press Freedom Awards, which celebrate courageous reporters from around the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which administers the award, announced Thursday the four journalists who would be honored.
This year’s honorees include Georgia’s Nika Gvaramia, India’s Shahina K.K., Mexico’s Maria Teresa Montaño and Togo’s Ferdinand Ayité.
“Attacks on the press are rising, yet journalists continue to step up and report on the vital issues that empower us all,” CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement announcing the honorees.
This year marks the 33rd iteration of the annual award.
“It is our honor to recognize this year’s awardees: formidable reporters working tirelessly to expose corruption, abuse, and wrongdoing despite considerable efforts to silence them,” Ginsberg said.
Gvaramia is the founder and director of the independent broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi. He was released from prison last week after a presidential pardon.
He served more than a year of a 3.5-year prison term for alleged abuse of office before being released last week. The charges against him were widely viewed as politically motivated.
“Thank you @pressfreedom for giving me such an honorable birthday present that I will cherish forever!” Gvaramia said in a tweet celebrating the news of the award.
Shahina K.K. is an editor at Outlook magazine. She was one of India’s first reporters to be charged under an anti-terror law that the government has used to target journalists for more than a decade. She is currently on bail awaiting a trial for a case that was opened in 2010.
Montaño is the founder and editor of the Mexican investigative website The Observer. In retaliation for her reporting, she was abducted by three men in 2021, who stole her files about a corruption investigation regarding state officials.
Ayité leads L’Alternative, one of Togo’s premier investigative outlets. Ayité and L’Alternative’s editor-in-chief fled Togo in March, just days before they were sentenced to three years in prison on charges of insulting authorities and false news.
“Thank you very much to CPJ for this recognition, the fruit of hard work at the cost of a thousand sacrifices,” Ayité tweeted.
CPJ also announced Thursday it will honor Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with the 2023 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.
The event honoring the journalists will be held in New York City on Nov. 16. It will be chaired by New York Times Company president and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien.
