Bilal Hussein To Receive CPJ Press Freedom Award

 

NEW YORK, NY (September 16, 2008) – Associated Press photojournalist Bilal Hussein of Iraq is one of five journalists being honored this year with the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Hussein joins Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad of Afghanistan, Andrew Mwenda of Uganda, and Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez of Cuba in receiving the 2008 honors.

“These are the front-line reporters who risk their lives and their liberty to bring the news not only to the people of their own countries but to a global audience,” said CPJ board chairman Paul Steiger. “Their courage and determination have expanded the world’s knowledge in critically important ways.”

The awards will be presented at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on Tuesday, November 25. Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, is chairman of the black-tie dinner. Gwen Ifill, CPJ board member and managing editor of PBS’ “Washington Week,” will be the host.

Citing Hussein for the award, the CPJ says Hussein "risked his life covering Ramadi and Fallujah in the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq. Hussein’s 2004 photo of Iraqi insurgents firing on U.S. troops during the battle of Fallujah helped AP win a Pulitzer Prize in photography. This same photo may also have led to his detention by the U.S. military. Hussein was arrested by U.S. forces in April 2006 and held for two years without charge. His case illustrates the U.S. military’s alarming tactic of open-ended detentions of Iraqi journalists."

 

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