IPI Award

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, has announced its decision to honour the Mizzima News Agency with its 2007 Free Media Pioneer Award. Managing Editor Sein Win will receive the prize on behalf of Mizzima News at an award ceremony on 15 May, during the IPI World Congress in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May 2007).

Mizzima News was founded in August 1998 by a small group of Burmese journalists in exile with the declared aim of "promoting awareness about the ongoing situation in Burma and promoting democracy and freedom of expression in Burma by improving the flow of information in and out of the country and through advocacy and lobbying." Today, it has a head office in New Delhi, India, as well as a news bureau in Thailand, and a team of some 30 employees, including Burmese and foreign journalists, in Bangladesh, Burma, China, India and Thailand.

Burma’s military government has tried to limit Mizzima’s ability to collect and disseminate information, pressuring the Thai government in 2005 to relocate Burmese refugees, including journalists, to camps near the border with Burma, where they were denied access to the Internet, phone lines and other means of keeping in touch with their sources of information. In 2006, the military government started a clampdown on anybody who provides information to foreign news outlets. New phone tapping facilities, as well as training programmes for agents in the Military Security Force to identify and arrest foreign media "informants", are used by the government to make sure that no uncensored information is distributed.

Against this backdrop, Mizzima News has continued to provide accurate and timely news and information on Burma for both Burmese and English readers and viewers, including a daily e-mail service; websites (www.mizzima.com and www.mizzima.tv); a monthly journal, which is often the only source of print news for exiled Burmese, particularly those living on Thailand’s western border with Burma; videos and podcasts; and alerts on press freedom violations.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, has decided to honour the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), one of the few independent media councils in Africa, with the 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award.

The 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award was to have been presented at an award ceremony during the IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, originally scheduled for 1-4 June 2003. However, warnings about a "credible threat" of a terrorist attack on foreigners and commercial aircraft compelled IPI to cancel the event.

Founded in June 1995 by media proprietors, editors and journalists, the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) was not allowed to operate until 22 May 1997, when it was finally registered by the government of Tanzania. Working within a system of antiquated media laws dating back to colonial rule, the MCT was borne out of the realisation that Tanzania’s media

The MCT’s declared aim is to "help create an environment in which democracy, free speech and basic rights will finally predominate" by "promoting freedom of the media and ensuring the highest professional standards of accountability" in Tanzania and East and Southern Africa. To this end, the MCT, which comprises academics, business representatives and prominent citizens chosen by journalists, has dedicated itself to ensuring that Tanzania’s media follow the letter and the spirit of a code of practice drafted and adopted by the industry. It has been relentless in calling for the repeal of repressive media laws and instrumental in working toward the establishment of further independent media councils in the region.

The annual IPI Free Media Pioneer Award was established by IPI in 1996 to honour organisations that have fought against great odds to ensure freer and more independent media in their country. The Award is co-sponsored by the US-based Freedom Forum, a non-partisan, international foundation dedicated to press freedom and free speech.

Launched on 9 June 1997 by 17 editors and journalists from leading independent media, Danas (Today) has managed to provide an accurate, impartial view of events occurring in the region while standing up to constant pressure from the Serbian authorities.

The newspaper withstood threats, administrative harassment, stiff fines and censorship during Slobodan Milosevic's war on the independent media and was banned by the Serbian Ministry of Information in October 1998 for violating a decree on "Special Measures in Circumstances of NATO's Threats With Military Attacks Against Our Country", which banned any coverage deemed "unpatriotic" and forbade reporting that, in the government's view, fomented "defeatism, panic and fear" in the face of possible Western military intervention over Kosovo. It was able to resume publishing soon after the ban was imposed by registering and printing in Montenegro, where the decree did not apply.

In July 2000, a Danas correspondent, Miroslav Filipovic, was sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage and spreading false information after writing a series of articles that documented atrocities committed by the Yugoslav Army in Kosovo. He was released within days of opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica's swearing in as the new president of Yugoslavia in October 2000.

Despite the change in government, Danas predicted that the new authorities would be still inclined to treat the media in the same way as their predecessors did under Milosevic and this prediction was soon confirmed. Danas has been verbally attacked by officials on several occasions because of its critical reporting on President Kostunica, but it continues to provide readers in Serbia, Vojvodina, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Macedonia with free and independent news from Yugoslavia while pursuing its declared aim: "To strive for pluralism and dialogue, for the complete and thorough protection of basic human rights, as well as the rights of all sorts of minorities - national, religious, cultural, and others."

Launched in November 1999 by Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran, Malaysiakini (Malaysia Now) has gained tremendous popularity with its mix of unbiased news coverage, investigative journalism, in-depth analysis and commentary written in English and Malay. Its declared aim is "to test and push the boundaries of free speech and press freedom in Malaysia by providing credible and up-to-date news and analysis" and "to counter the culture of self-censorship in the mainstream media."

Malaysiakini operates against a backdrop of harsh government restrictions on independent and pro-opposition print media. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), and its coalition allies own or control the main newspapers and broadcasting stations in the country, while strict licensing requirements under the Printing Presses and Publications Act make it virtually impossible for critical newspapers to emerge. Last year, a range of independent and opposition publications were effectively banned or restricted because they allegedly broke the terms of their publishing licences.

The "new media" remains the sole opportunity to develop a free and independent press in Malaysia, and Malaysiakini.com is using the Internet as a testing ground for publishing stories which are in the public concern without fear of recrimination. So far, the Malaysian government – with an eye on the economic benefits of the Information Age – has refrained from censoring the new technology, and Malaysiakini believes that the government will eventually come to understand the need for information liberalisation in the IT era.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists was formed in 1994 in the wake of the banning of the three most independent and critical titles in Indonesia: Tempo, DeTik, and Editor. Since its inception it has faced constant harassment and victimisation from the government. Article 19 of the Indonesian Press Law prohibits the publication of an unlicensed newspaper or magazine, and Article 154 of the Indonesian Criminal Code bears the expression of "feelings of hostility, hatred or contempt toward the government." These laws have been utilised to jail members of AJI following the publication of their magazine, Independen, which has been critical of the government.

The government-controlled Journalists Association of Indonesia (PWI) has encouraged editors to dismiss AJI authorities. AJI continues to document press freedom violation in Indonesia and spearheads the struggle for freedom of expression in the country.