Lister to receive Courage Award

THE Editor of The Namibian, Gwen Lister, is one of three journalists who will receive the Courage in Journalism Award for 2004.

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) announced the winners in Washington, D.C., yesterday. The other two are Salima Tlemcani, a reporter for El Watan newspaper in Algiers, Algeria; and Mabel Rehnfeldt, investigations editor for the ABC Color newspaper and host of a daily radio programme on Radio Primero de Marzo in Asuncion, Paraguay.”This year’s Courage in Journalism Award winners demonstrate commitment to reporting the truth about injustice, corruption and human rights violations, despite the life-threatening risks involved,” said Judy Woodruff, prime anchor and senior correspondent at CNN and chair of the Courage in Journalism Awards.”By honouring them, we are shining a light on parts of the world where the battle for press freedom rages.”The IWMF also announced that it would give its Lifetime Achievement Award to Belva Davis (71), a pioneering California television journalist.For more than 30 years, she has been instrumental in covering urban affairs and the needs of ethnic communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.She became the first African-American television reporter on the West Coast in 1966 when she was hired as an anchor at KPIX-TV, San Francisco’s CBS affiliate.The International Women’s Media Foundation was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide, based on the belief that no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice.The IWMF network consists of more than 1 500 women in the media in more than 130 countries.The other two are Salima Tlemcani, a reporter for El Watan newspaper in Algiers, Algeria; and Mabel Rehnfeldt, investigations editor for the ABC Color newspaper and host of a daily radio programme on Radio Primero de Marzo in Asuncion, Paraguay.”This year’s Courage in Journalism Award winners demonstrate commitment to reporting the truth about injustice, corruption and human rights violations, despite the life-threatening risks involved,” said Judy Woodruff, prime anchor and senior correspondent at CNN and chair of the Courage in Journalism Awards.”By honouring them, we are shining a light on parts of the world where the battle for press freedom rages.”The IWMF also announced that it would give its Lifetime Achievement Award to Belva Davis (71), a pioneering California television journalist.For more than 30 years, she has been instrumental in covering urban affairs and the needs of ethnic communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.She became the first African-American television reporter on the West Coast in 1966 when she was hired as an anchor at KPIX-TV, San Francisco’s CBS affiliate.The International Women’s Media Foundation was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide, based on the belief that no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice.The IWMF network consists of more than 1 500 women in the media in more than 130 countries.