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Spotlight on Sierra Leone's Press International Editors of the Year Honored |
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They have endured the wrath of the rebels and the government, risking their lives to tell the story of Sierra Leone's brutal nine-year civil war. In recognition of the extraordinary bravery and professionalism of newspaper editors Paul Kamara of For di People, Philip Neville of Standard Times, and David Tam-Baryoh of Punch, World Press Review magazine named the three as recipients of its 25th annual International Editor of the Year Award. The award is given annually by the New York City-based monthly magazine, published by the Stanley Foundation, to an editor or editors outside the United States in recognition of enterprise, courage, and leadership in advancing the freedom and responsibility of the press, enhancing human rights, and fostering excellence in journalism. Kamara, Neville, and Tam-Baryoh have all been detained, jailed, and harassed under successive military dictatorships, as well as under the elected government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, for their hard-hitting investigative reporting of corruption and abuse of power. A few days before the January 1999 invasion of the capital, Freetown, by rebel forces of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Revolutionary United Front, the three were named on a rebel death list that forced them into hiding. But it didn't stop them from covering the rebels' murderous campaign. "Children had their hands cut off. Some of them had their eyes gouged out. The situation was very bad," Neville said in his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, held September 28 at the United Nations. "And it was during this period that we were writing. Because there must be somebody to tell these people that what they are doing is not right. We became the target of the government, and we became the target of the rebels." In presenting the awards to Neville and Tam-Baryoh, who represented their colleague Paul Kamara, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Olara A. Otunnu spoke of Sierra Leone's independent journalists as "particularly committed and courageous journalists who, in the midst of everything, continued to print and broadcast and to resist." Tam-Baryoh, who recently returned to Freetown from exile in Ghana, said, "I want to believe that this award, actually, is not for the three of us alone, but for the 15 journalists who have been murdered in Sierra Leone." In a display of the spirit that characterizes these three exemplary journalists, he added, "We work in Sierra Leone not for money, not for anything. Sometimes people ask, 'Oh, are you coming to stay in the States?' I say, No. Sierra Leone is where I'm needed."
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