On May 2, 2023, the United Nations announced that its premier press freedom prize is awarded to three Iranian female journalists for their “commitment to truth and accountability.”
The journalists are Niloufar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammedi and Narges Mohammedi. Niloufar broke the news that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died last September while being held by the morality police (Gasht-e-Ershad) for wearing the headscarf too loosely.
Elaheh Mohammadi wrote about her funeral, and Narges Mohammadi is a former journalist and she is one of Iran’s most noted prominent activists.
The UNSECO World Freedom Prize is named for Guillermo Cano, who was assassinated in front of the office of her newspaper El Espectador in Bogota (Columbia) on December 17, 1986. Since then, World Press Freedom Day is being held every year on May 3 since 1997.
In a ceremony in New York, the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, announced the winners saying, “Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face attacks on personal safety.”
Zainab Salbi, the chair of the International Jury of Media Professionals that chose the winners, said that the work of the three winners “led to a historic women-led revolution.”
“They have paid a hefty price for their commitment to report and convey the truth,” Salbi said. “And for that, we are committed to honouring them and ensuring that their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are free and safe.”
In late April, the Iranian judiciary acknowledged that two reporters who broke the news of Amini’s death, Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammedi, had been indicted for collaborating with the US, acting against national security by creating propaganda against the system.
Nearly a hundred journalists were arrested amid the demonstrations; Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammedi’s reporting was crucial days after Mahsa Amini’s death to spread the word about the following anger.
Elaheh Mohammedi works for a reformist newspaper called Ham-Mihan, while Hamedi works for a newspaper named Shargh.
Their respective detentions have sparked international criticism over the bloody security crackdown that lasted months after Amini’s death. Hamedi and Mohammedi have been in Iran’s Evin Prison since September, and Hamedi was kept in solitary confinement, according to UNESCO.
According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, around 529 people have been killed in demonstrations since the protest began, and 19,700 others have been arrested and detained amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent. Iran has not offered any casualty figure rate for months but acknowledged that tens of thousands were detained.
Narges Mohammadi has been facing repeated detaining and imprisonment by authorities. As per the UNESCO, she is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She has won recognition abroad for her work, including her activism against the death penalty in Iran, which remains a top executioner worldwide.
She is also the Vice Director of the Tehran-based civil society organisation “Defender Of Human Rights Center.” She continues to report in print and from her prison and has interviewed other women prisoners mentioned in her book “White Torture.”
