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Zimbabwe
lawyer honored for defending press freedom
African Press Agency
September 17, 2008
http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=75530
Prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been
honoured by the US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists
(CPJ) in recognition of her contribution to a free press in the
southern African country, APA learnt here Wednesday.
Mtetwa, who has become
a household name in Zimbabwe after successfully representing several
journalists accused of contravening the country's tough media
laws, will receive CPJ's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for
lifetime achievement in recognition of her continued efforts to
ensure free freedom in one of the most repressive regimes in the
world.
The Burton Benjamin Memorial
Award is named after the late producer of US network, Columbia Broadcasting
System (CBS)'s News Department, and a former CPJ chairman,
who died in 1988.
Mtetwa, a 2005 recipient
of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award, is the first person
to be honoured with both awards.
"Mtetwa is a tireless
defender of press freedom in Zimbabwe where the law is used as a
weapon against independent journalists," CPJ said.
The Zimbabwean lawyer
will receive the award at a ceremony to be held in New York City
on November 25.
Mtetwa has won acquittals
for dozens of journalists arrested under Zimbabwe's tough
media laws.
She represented Barry
Bearak, the Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times correspondent
who faced criminal charges after being arrested for operating without
accreditation from the Zimbabwe government during the country's
elections in April.
The South African-based
Bearak will travel to New York to present this award to her.
Bilal Hussein of Iraq,
Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad of Afghanistan, Andrew Mwenda
of Uganda, and Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez of Cuba will
also be honored at the ceremony.
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