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The Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism
The Peter Mackler Award for Ethical Journalism was established in June, 2008 to honor the memory of Peter Mackler, a thirty-five year career journalist who passed away June 20, 2008. The Peter Mackler Award seeks to recognize and encourage journalists working where freedom of the press is either not guarantied or not recognized. It is run jointly by Global Media Forum, a media-training company established by Mackler in 2004, and the US branch of free-press watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders.
On October 2, 2009, the first Peter Mackler Award was given to Sri Lankan journalist and editor J. S. Tissainayagam ("Tissa"). Tissa was previously announced as the first winner on August 31, 2009, the same day he was sentenced to twenty years hard labor on terrorism charges. Tissa's wife, Ronnate Tissainayagam, accepted the award on her behalf at a ceremony held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Tissa was subsequently pardoned and was able to travel to the United States.
On August 22, 2010, Ilya Barabanov, deputy editor of the Russian opposition weekly The New Times was named the 2010 recipient of the award. Barabanov has written extensively on the Tchetchen conflict and corruption in the Russian government. In April, 2010, following a series of interviews with anonymous sources conducted by Barabanov and other New Times reporters, The New Times published an article accusing Russia's elite security forces, OMON, of corruption and slavery of migrant workers. As a result of this article, OMON and the Russian government sued the news magazine and a Court ordered a The New Times' to turn over all information regarding the sources for the OMON article. The New Times has refused to hand over any information that would help identify the sources, citing Russian media protection laws, and has appealed the Court's issuance of the warrant. To date, The New Times editorial offices have been raided twice by police forces attempting to execute the warrant. Barabanov will be formally awarded at a ceremony held on October 22, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
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