THE 2007 IPA FREEDOM PRIZE GOES TO ZIMBABWEAN PUBLISHER TREVOR NCUBE

Issued by: Mail & Guardian
Bizcommunity.com, South Africa
May 17 2007

During the opening ceremony of the 2nd Cape Town Book Fair on 15 June
2007, Zimbabwean publisher Trevor Ncube will be receiving the 2007
IPA Freedom Prize in recognition for exemplary courage in upholding
freedom of expression and freedom to publish in his country and
internationally.

The board of the International Publishers’ Association (IPA) selected
Trevor Ncube as Prize-winner from among many highly commendable
candidates, nominated by IPA members, individual publishers and human
rights’ organisations.

Ana Maria Cabanellas, President of IPA, declares: "Trevor Ncube’s work
as a publisher and his wholehearted support of freedom of expression
have often brought him into conflict with Zimbabwean authorities and
endangered his personal safety. Despite repeated threats of violence
and attempts to strip him of his Zimbabwean citizenship, Trevor
Ncube’s newspapers have persistently continued to expose corruption
and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, thus encouraging healthy dissent
and criticism both in the public and private sectors. We award this
Prize to Trevor Ncube in deep respect for his courage as a publisher
and as a salute to the passion, the integrity, and the steadfastness
that he so marvellously demonstrates."

On the same occasion, IPA will be awarding the "2007 IPA Freedom
Prize-Special Award" to Hrant Dink and Anna Politkovskaya. Hrant
Dink, a Turk of Armenian descent, was the editor-in-chief of the
Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos, which sought to provide a voice
for the Armenian community and create a dialogue between Turks and
Armenians. In October 2006, he was convicted and given a six-month
suspended sentence for the crime of "insulting Turkishness" under
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. On 19 January 2007, he was shot
dead on the street in front of his Istanbul office at the age of 52.

Anna Politkovskaya was the special correspondent for the Russian
newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, who documented the horrific crimes committed
in the war in Chechnya. She was also an outspoken critic of Vladimir
Putin and of the Kremlin’s role in Chechnya. She was shot and killed
in her apartment building in Moscow on 7, October 2006, the apparent
victim of a contract killing. She was 48.

Bjørn Smith-Simonsen, Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee,
says: "The murders of Dink and Politkovskaya were vile. In giving them
the ‘2007 IPA Freedom Prize-Special Award’, we rise to celebrate their
courage, their humanity, and their witness. We rise to celebrate the
free word in the face of oppressive regimes. We also hope that this
special award will remind the Russian and Turkish authorities that
full light must be shed on all the aspects of these two cases."

More about Trevor Ncube, recipient of the 2007 IPA Freedom Prize: Born
and educated in and outside Zimbabwe, Trevor Ncube became Lecturer
in Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe. He left to become
Deputy Editor of the financial weekly, Financial Gazette before joining
The Zimbabwe Independent as Editor. He later bought the paper as well
as its sister weekly, The Standard. After a few years he also acquired
the South African based regional weekly, The Mail and Guardian. Ncube
is currently the Chief Executive of the three independent weeklies,
the only private and critical newspapers still published in Zimbabwe.

More about the IPA Freedom Prize and the Cape Town Book Fair: Created
in 2005, the IPA Freedom Prize is awarded for exemplary courage in
upholding freedom of expression and freedom to publish. It is intended
to honour, normally each year, a person, organisation or institution
that has made a notable contribution to the defence and/promotion of
freedom to publish anywhere in the world. The prize-winner receives
the sum of 5,000 CHF (approximately 3,000 EUR or 4,000 USD).

The IPA Publishers’ Freedom Prize will be presented during the
opening ceremony of the 2nd Cape Town Book Fair on 15 June 2007
by IPA President Ana Maria Cabanellas. For more on this event,
whose theme for 2007 is "More than Black on White", please see:

More about IPA: The International Publishers Association is the global
non-governmental organisation representing all aspects of book and
journal publishing worldwide. Established in 1896, IPA’s mission is to
promote and protect publishing and to raise awareness for publishing
as a force for cultural and political advancement worldwide. It is
an industry association with a human rights mandate.

IPA promotes intellectual property, fights against censorship and
currently has 65 member associations in 53 countries.

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