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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.

06

Anna Zarkova is chief of the Criminal News Department for Trud Daily. She has been awarded national prizes for her stories exposing organized crime, police violence and corruption, but has also received threats because of these articles.

In May 1998 the threats turned to reality when Zarkova was attacked. She was severely burned when a man threw sulfuric acid on her while she was waiting for a bus. From her hospital bed following the attack, she implored her fellow journalists not to be deterred: "Colleagues, for us there is no other way. If they don't splash acid in your face as a journalist, tomorrow they will kill you in the street as a citizen."

Zarkova received burns on the left side of her face and body, and the damage to her left eye was so severe, it had to be removed in 1999. An arrest has yet to be made in the attack, but police suspect a man connected to Bulgaria's underworld.

She is determined to keep fighting. "Before our nine-year-old Bulgarian civil society had a chance to walk steadily, it was endangered by the outburst of the criminal revolution. Many Bulgarian journalists felt that they should step to the front line and join the fight to save their country from the criminal Mafia. I was wounded in the battle, but I managed to survive… I believe that free speech can only be possible if we keep in mind the romantic phrase of the Three Musketeers: 'One for all and all for one!'"

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