The United Nations has awarded three detained Iranian female journalists the World Press Freedom Prize.
The UN said the award was to honour the three journalists (Niloufar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi) for their commitment to truth and accountability.
Ms Hamedi broke the news about the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old lady that died in police custody for not wearing her hijab properly. After reporting the news, she has been detained in Iran’s Evin Prison since September 2022.
Ms Mohammadi wrote an article about Ms Amini’s funeral and was later detained in Evin Prison. Hamedi and Mohammadi are joint winners of the 2023 International Press Freedom Award by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) and Harvard’s 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.
Mohammadi is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She has continued reporting from prison and interviewed other female prisoners.
The UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Press Freedom Prize was named after a Colombian journalist, Guillermo Cano, who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogota on December 17, 1986.
UNESCO has awarded the prize to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on May 3 since 1997.
