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Courage in Journalism Awards

Every year the International Women’s Media Foundation honors brave women journalists who risk political persecution,injury and sometimes death in their efforts to expose corruption and champion human rights.

Global Research on Women

The IWMF is working on ground-breaking research on the status of women in the media worldwide. The new study, the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media, will measure the career progress of women in the news media and use the results to help advocate for change.

The IWMF also tracks past studies on women in the news media, and will draw from this prior work in compiling the Global Report, which will be published in 2011.

4-Year Africa Project

With generous support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the IWMF launched "Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa." The project is energizing the way African media cover one of the most important topics on the continent.
The IWMF is helping African journalists to boost coverage of agriculture and rural development and increase women’s voices – both as journalists and as sources – in stories about agriculture

Funding HIV/AIDS Investigative Reporting

The IWMF is establishing 10 fellowships to train journalists in South Africa to write investigative reports on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. With support from the M*A*C  AIDS Fund, these experienced journalists will conduct interviews and write in-depth research for their publications in 2011.

05

One of the few women to head a newspaper in the region, she has faced a barrage of legal maneuverings designed to stifle her reporting, which has been critical of government officials. Though Kyrgyzstan's president claims to support an open and independent media, his government has used threat of legal action to undermine independent media.

The government's campaign to shut down Sydykova's paper began in 1993. In 1995, she was charged with slandering the president, because she wrote about his foreign bank accounts. As a result, she was banned from working as a journalist for 18 months. In 1997, she was charged with criminal libel for publishing articles alleging corruption in a state-run gold mining company. After a month in a labor camp, she was released, but was banned from working for another 18 months.

In 2000, Res Publica and Sydykova were again found guilty of libel. The resulting fines equaled the annual budget of the paper. Res Publica was forced to close for several months. Sydykova appealed for early disbursement of the $2,000 prize which accompanies the Courage in Journalism Award and paid her fine. Res Publica is again publishing.

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