As CPJ
Awards Urge
Free Shawkan,
UN Awards
Egypt State
Media Office
of Evicted ICP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 22, more
(NYT)
here --
When the
International
Press Freedom
Awards were
given on November
22 at the
Waldorf
Astoria,
only three of
the four
awardees could
be present.
Egyptian
photojournalist
Mahmoud Abou
Zeid, known as
Shawkan, is
still
imprisoned by
the al-Sisi
government.
Three avenues
east of the
Waldorf at the
United
Nations, one
of al-Sisi's
state media
Akhbar al Yom
is being
awarded the
longtime work
space of
investigative
Inner City
Press, which
outgoing
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his head of
Public
Information
Cristina
Gallach ousted
and evicted
earlier this
year.
For nine
months, Inner
City Press has
only been
allowed to
cover UN
General
Assembly
events when
accompanied by
a minder,
often
unavailable or
withdrawn in
the middle of
reporting.
Here's
CNN's Jeff
Zucker
recounting the
meeting with
PEOTUS Trump,
on Periscope
The UN
Secretariat's
ambivalent
stance to
press freedom
-- Ban Ki-moon
has for
example not
taken any
public
question at UN
headquarters
in more than a
month -- has
been raised to
the IPFA's
sponsor, the
Committee to
Protect
Journalists.
To the
surprise of
some, and
ironic now
when compared
to CPJ's Trump
statements,
CPJ did not
challenge the
UN Secretariat
as for example
the DC-based Government
Accountability
Project did. CPJ
said told
Inner City
Press that it
only works on
cases of life
and death.
Now that CPJ
has become
even closed to
- accredited
in - the
United
Nations,
perhaps they
will do more.
For now,
beyond Shakwan
CPJ has given
awards to Can
Dundar, Malini
Subramaniam
and Oscar
Martinez of
the online El
Faro in El
Salvador.
It'd be nice,
too, to hear
of Jean
Bigirimana in
Burundi, for
example. Watch
this site.
, 
