The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will honor four courageous journalists from Belarus, Guatemala, Mozambique, and Myanmar with the 2021 International Press Freedom Awards on Thursday.
Mozambican journalist Matías Guente will be awarded the 2021 International Press Freedom Award for investigative reporting.
Guente is the executive editor of Canal de Moçambique, an independent weekly investigative newspaper, and its daily digital publication CanalMoz and known for exposing high-profile corruption scandals in Mozambique.
According to CPJ, the awards will be presented on November 18, 2021, at CPJ’s annual benefit gala, to be chaired by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and hosted by ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.
CPJ’s 2021 awardees are:
Katsiaryna Barysevich (Belarus): Barysevich is a staff correspondent for the influential Belarusian news outlet Tut.by, where she covers legal and social issues. In 2020, Barysevich was reporting on pro-democracy protests in the country and published a story about a protester allegedly killed by law enforcement, contradicting authorities’ official statements. As a result, she spent six months behind bars and faced fines. Her colleagues at Tut.by continue to face detentions and harassment.
Anastasia Mejía Tiriquiz (Guatemala): Mejía is a radio journalist based in Joyabaj, a town in the central Guatemalan department of Quiché. She co-founded Xolabaj Radio and Xolabaj TV to cover issues of importance for the local community, particularly topics of concern to Indigenous women. In September 2020, police arrested Mejía on criminal charges connected to her coverage of local demonstrations, and she was held in pretrial detention for five weeks before being released on house arrest. Today, her journalistic work is severely restricted.
Matías Guente (Mozambique): Guente is the executive editor of Canal de Moçambique, an independent weekly investigative newspaper, and its daily digital publication CanalMoz. Over the years, he has faced a myriad of threats for his hard-hitting reporting, including police interrogations, charges of violation of state secrecy and conspiracy against the state, and an attempted kidnapping in 2019. In 2020, unidentified individuals set the outlet’s offices ablaze.
Aye Chan Naing (Myanmar): Aye Chan Naing is co-founder, chief editor, and executive director of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an independent broadcast media group in Myanmar. As a pioneer in Myanmar’s exile media movement starting in the 1990s, he led DVB’s transition from exile-based to in-country operations in 2012, despite continued harassment from the government. In 2021, multiple DVB journalists were arrested or detained amid a harsh crackdown on media and civil society following the military junta’s takeover in February.
According to CPJ, the winners will be honored on November 18, 2021, at CPJ’s annual awards ceremony, to be chaired this year by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and hosted by ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir. Due to health and safety considerations related to COVID-19, this year’s gala will be a hybrid virtual and in-person event.
Matias Guente Wins Press Freedom Award for Investigative Reporting:
In August 2020, unidentified individuals broke into the newspaper’s office, poured gasoline on the furniture and equipment, and set it ablaze. The fire destroyed the newsroom, furniture, the outlet’s archives, and all the equipment used to produce content.
But Guente and his team refused to be cowed. The next day, the staff set up an open-air newsroom outside the office to produce that week’s edition of the newspaper. The headline on the front page that week was “We will not bow to fire.”
A local press freedom group said the attack could be linked to a set of reports from Canal de Moçambique, published in the weeks prior to the attack, that investigated the kidnapping of businessmen by a crime syndicate allegedly linked to police, the security contracts of multinationals operating in Cabo Delgado, and an alleged manipulation to a fuel marketing process at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy. The ministry suspended a fuel marketing deal following that investigation.
Guente told CPJ that he and Canal de Moçambique had faced official harassment and intimidation in recent years. The attackers were “trying just to shut down the paper, because they know how relevant we are to democracy,” he said. In July 2020, Guente was interrogated by local officials and charged with violation of state secrecy and conspiracy against the state. Those charges were later dropped due to the lack of evidence against him, but local officials made clear that they could be reintroduced. In December 2019, unidentified assailants beat Guente and attempted to kidnap him. He told CPJ that he believed the incidents were related.
The attacks on Guente are indicative of an alarming deterioration of press freedom in the country. By honoring him with an award, CP is shining a light on the intimidation of journalists seeking to cover subjects seen as sensitive by authorities, including alleged corruption, human rights issues, and the conflict in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province.
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