Entries for January 2008

Zanan, a feminist Iranian magazine that was founded by 2005 Courage in Journalism Award winner Shahla Sherkat, has been ordered to close by Iranian censors. Zanan, which has survived previous crackdowns, has been promoting women's rights for the last 16 years. Read more in a Los Angeles Times blog.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJanuary 23, 2008 For more information:Lindsey Wray(202) 496-1992LWray@iwmf.org IWMF Calls for Applications for U....

Frances Lewine, a pinoneering woman journalist who fought against discrimination, died Jan. 19. Lewine, who was most recently an assignment editor and field producer for CNN, was a White House correspondent for the Associated Press during the administrations of six presidents. She was one of seven women who filed a class-action lawsuit against the AP in 1978 that led to policy changes on salaries, assignments, promotions, pensions and hiring. Lewine was 86. Read the article in The Washington Post.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJanuary 14, 2008 For more information:Lindsey Wray(202) 496-1992LWray@iwmf.org IWMF Accepting Applications for El...

The IWMF was featured Jan. 3 on Houston's KPFT radio station. Jane Ransom, the IWMF executive director, was interviewed about the organization and the Courage in Journalism Awards on a weekly program called The Progressive Forum, which deals with issues such as the media, politics and peace and justice. Click here to listen to the KPFT program.

Sixty-five journalists were killed in direct relation to their work in 2007, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a year-end report, making the journalist death toll its in more than a decade. Iraq was the deadliest country for the press for the fifth straight year with 32 journalists killed. Visit CPJ's Web site to access the report.

Serkalem Fasil, an Ethiopian publisher who received a 2007 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, was denied her applications to launch new newspapers this week by the Ethiopian government. Fasil and her husband, journalist Eskinder Nega, along with another publisher, Sisay Agena, reportedly fulfilled all legal requirements and submitted applications for Lualawi and Habesha, two current affairs Amharic-language weeklies. The journalists were previously imprisoned and their newspapers shut down by the government. Click here to read the CPJ alert.