Moving Women Forward in the News MediaScheduled for the IWMF’s 20th anniversary year, The International Conference of Women Media Leaders will give wo...

The IWMF has announced winners of the 2010 Courage and Lifetime Achievement Awards. Award ceremonies will be held in New York and Los Angeles in October.

An investigative journalist and correspondent for Radio Nizkor in Colombia, Duque tackles some of the most difficult and dangerous stories in Colombia, including child trafficking, illegal adoption, infiltration of paramilitary groups into Colombian state institutions, human rights violations, and the murder of political humorist and journalist Jaime Garzón.  She first received death threats more than 10 years ago and has been constantly harassed by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS, the Colombian security service). She has had to go into exile three times, and her daughter has also received death threats.

A freelance Tanzanian reporter who contributes to the BBC World Service, Vicky Ntetema uncovered one of her country’s horrible secrets when she began to investigate the brutal killings of albinos and their families. Working undercover, she learned that witchdoctors were murdering albinos to dismember their bodies and sell potions made out of their hair, legs and arms.  Ntetema has received death threats since she started her reporting. She has twice left Tanzania for her safety. She now reports wearing hijab to disguise her identity and often travels with a security guard.

A Mexican journalist whose articles have illuminated Latin America for her readers, Alma Guillermoprieto is a contributor to the British-based Guardian newspaper, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek and The New Yorker, she has covered Argentina’s “dirty war,” post-Sandinista Nicaragua, the “Shining Path” rebels in Peru, the Colombian civil war and the Mexican drug wars. In 1982, she was one of only two reporters to investigate rumors of mass killings perpetrated by the U.S.-supported Salvadoran army in El Mozote, El Salvador. When she published her reports in The Washington Post, the Reagan Administration tried to discredit her, but she stood firm. Eventually, the U.S. government was forced to confirm her story.

A Beijing-based Tibetan freelance writer and blogger for the site Invisible Tibet, Tsering Woeser is also a contributor to Radio Free Asia. For more than eight years, since the publication of her book Notes on Tibet, Woeser has been under constant scrutiny by Chinese authorities. Woeser lives in Beijing and reports about human rights abuses in Tibet, but her work is published only by media outside mainland China. Sources she has relied on for years will no longer speak to her for fear of retaliation; anyone who dares to meet with her is likely to be interrogated by police. Still, she remains determined to inform the world about the struggles of the Tibetan people.

For immediate release May 10, 2010 En español For more information, contact: Lindsey Wray (202) 496-1992 LWray@iwmf.org Claudia Duque ...

The IWMF has named co-chairs of its 20th  Anniversary Steering Committee: Alexandra C. Trower, and Phil and Christine Bronstein. The co-chairs will serve as ambassadors for the IWMF.

For immediate release May 5, 2010 For more information, contact: Lindsey Wray (202) 496-1992 LWray@iwmf.org Alexandra C. Trower of The Este&eacu...

IWMF board member Cindi Leive after receiving a 2010 National Magazine Award: “We’re the first women’s magazine ever honored with this award–just more proof that, as the IWMF always says, women’s voices matter."

The IWMF held a Leadership Institute for African women journalists in March in Bamako, Mali. Sessions included a leadership style assessment and how to manage conflict.

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will award $1,000 to honor an innovative project in environmental coverage. The contest is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Journalists who are implementing a new idea that is changing the way environmental news and information is communicated are invited to apply. Deadline is April 30. Click here for details or to apply.

The Online Media Legal Network, launched earlier this year, is a free legal referral network that assists journalists and other independent publishers to find free legal help. The network provides assistance in a broad range of legal issues, including copyright licensing and fair use counseling. Visit the OMLN Web site to learn more.

Ann Curry, an IWMF board member and NBC anchor, will receive an award at the Women Who Care luncheon May 6 in New York. The event honors female role models representing various segments of the community. Read more about the event.

Judy Woodruff, a founding member of the IWMF board of directors, will receive the 2010 Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in the television category from Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The award will be presented on April 20. Read more about Woodruff’s award.