Courage Award Winners

Tatyana Goryachova is the editor in chief of Berdyansk Delovoy, the only independent newspaper in Berdyansk, Ukraine, a small town on the Azov Sea. Her husband, Sergey Belousov, is the paper’s publisher. Goryacheva often covers city government, healthcare and local issues, and when she uncovers corruption in these institutions, she writes about it. In Ukraine, a country with one of the worst press freedom records in the world, this is perilous.

Marielos Monzon, a columnist for the daily Prensa Libre in Guatemala City, Guatemala, is known for her commitment to reporting on human rights violations in her country. Guatemala is a country still coping with the brutal aftermath of a 36-year (1960-1996) civil war in which an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed. By reporting on the bloody aftermath both in her newspaper column and until recently as co-host of a radio program, Punto de Encuentro (Meeting Point), Marielos Monzon has incurred the rath of those who would bury the past.

Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter for the independent, Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has covered both sides of the war in Chechnya, earning harassment from both the Russian government and Chechen rebels. She is known for her investigative reporting documenting atrocities against the civilian population of Chechnya by the Russian military.

On September 11, 2001, Kathy Gannon, who has reported for the Associated Press from Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1988, became the eyes and ears of the Western press in Kabul.

Sandra Nyaira is political editor of the only independent newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News. She works amid almost daily harassment in a country with one of the worst press freedom records in the world. President Robert Mugabe, aided by his minister of information, Jonathan Moyo, has waged war on the independent press. All journalists must be licensed by the government and they can be prosecuted for criticizing Mugabe and his government. In Zimbabwe, journalists who cross the president risk beatings, torture and death threats.

In the two years since she became editor-in-chief of the Khartoum-based independent daily newspaper Al-Rai Al-Akher, Amal Abbas has faced constant harassment and censorship. The only female editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Sudan, Abbas was sent to prison in January 2001 and held for 36 hours because she published an article charging a judicial authority with misappropriating funds.

Carmen Gurruchaga Basurto, a political reporter for El Mundo, a Madrid-based daily newspaper, writes frequently about the Basque separatist group, ETA. Gurruchaga's stories have so threatened the terrorist group that since 1984 it has waged a campaign against her, hoping to intimidate her into stopping reporting on their activities.

Jineth Bedoya Lima, a 27-year-old reporter for El Espectador, a daily newspaper in Bogota, Colombia, covers the conflict between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups. Her reports have regularly earned her harassment and death threats from those she writes about.

In Burundi, independent journalists covering the ongoing six-year civil war risk death threats from both sides of the conflict. Still, freelance journalist Agnes Nindorera broadcasts what she sees, despite escalating threats to her life. She pursues the story of a civil war in which 200,000 people have died, caught in a conflict between Tutsi-dominated Burundian government forces and Hutu rebels.

Marie Colvin has fearlessly reported from behind the front lines of nearly every violent conflict in the world in the last 15 years. In 2000, she brought readers of The Sunday Times closer to conflicts in Kosovo, East Timor and Chechnya.

Zamira Sydykova, editor-in-chief of Res Publica, an independent newspaper founded in Kyrgyzstan in the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, is a leader in the independent media in Central Asia.

Sharifa Akhlas was born and educated in Afghanistan, but now works in exile as a radio and television producer and reporter for the Afghan Media Resource Center (AMRC) based in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Kim Bolan has been a reporter for The Vancouver Sun since 1984. In the past 15 years, she has covered wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Afghanistan, but Bolan is best known for her coverage of the Sikh community in Vancouver, Canada.

Aferdita Kelmendi began her career working for Radio Pristina, a station controlled by the Yugoslav government. But when communism fell and gave way to civil war in the former Yugoslavia, she saw a need to educate youth in non-violence.

As European bureau chief for The Boston Globe, Elizabeth Neuffer reported from some of the world's most dangerous hot spots. She has been menaced by gun-toting rebels, subjected to death threats, abducted by soldiers, robbed and threatened with rape. In 1994, Neuffer was one of only a few reporters in Sarajevo when a bomb exploded in a marketplace and killed 68 people. She helped pick up the bodies and then wrote her story.