ZIMBABWE PUBLISHER WINS AWARD

The Southern African, Canada
May 25 2007

GENEVA – Zimbabwean newspaper publisher, Trevor Ncube, has been
awarded the International Publishers’ Association (IPA) Freedom Prize.

Ncube publishes one of South Africa’s leading newspapers, the Mail
and Guardian and owns Zimbabwe’s only independent titles; the business
weekly Zimbabwe Independent and the Sunday publication, The Standard.

Ana Maria Cabanellas, President of IPA, on Wednesday said: "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."

Ncube will receive his award during the opening ceremony of the 2nd
Cape Town Book Fair on 15 June 2007.

On the same occasion, IPA will be awarding the "2007 IPA Freedom
Prize-Special Award" posthumously to slain journalists, Hrant Dink
of Turkey and Anna Politkovskaya of Russia.

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 President
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.

"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," said Bjørn Smith-Simonsen,
Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee.

"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."

–Boundary_(ID_GUPhXoliGJ63ocJ9tTR8R g)–