Washington: Malini Subramaniyam, a freelance journalist, won the prestigious International Press Freedom Award 2016. The award, given by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), chose Subramaniam for her reportage that led to her being threatened and eventually driven out of the state.
Three other journalists were also chosen for the award – Mahmoud Abou Zeid, an Egyptian photojournalist also known as ‘Shawkan’, who has been imprisoned since August 2013; Can Dündar, editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who was sentenced in May to five years and 10 months in prison on charges of revealing state secrets; and Óscar Martínez, an investigative reporter for the online newsmagazine El Faro in El Salvador.
As a freelancer, Subramaniam has extensively written on human rights violations including tribal protests against police atrocities, allegations of sexual violence by security forces and fake encounters in the conflicted Bastar region. The committee said “Malini Subramaniam, a freelance journalist from India, was attacked and harassed after she reported on human rights abuses and the conflict between Maoist groups and state forces in Chhattisgarh.
Earlier this year, Subramaniam fled her home state after being repeatedly harassed and threatened.”
Further, Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent and anchor at CNN, will receive the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom.