Entries for July 1990

Caryle Murphy is a 20-year veteran reporter at The Washington Post. She astonished the world with her courageous reporting from Kuwait, where she hid for 26 days after the invasion by Saddam Hussein in 1990. Eluding Iraqi forces, she managed to file first-hand accounts and send them to her paper with people who were able to get out. Her byline and identity were kept secret until after she safely escaped. Murphy continued her assignment in the Middle East to cover the ensuing war in the Gulf.

As a result of her father's political imprisonment, Florica Ichim was refused education and employment. But she overcame these obstacles and ultimately began her journalism career in the late 1960s. When Ichim refused to join the Communist Party in 1975, she was forced to leave Romania Libera, the paper where she worked. But, ironically, just two days after the December 1989 revolution in Romania, Ichim was elected executive editor by the staff of the newspaper.

Maria Jimena Duzan risked her life by daring to probe for the truth and stand firm for press freedom in a country known for violence against journalists. At age 30, she was already foreign editor, columnist, and chief investigator for the Bogota daily, El Espectador. Hard-hitting and incisive, Duzan took on the dangerous task of writing about the drug trade in Colombia. Her column, "My Zero Hour," was one of the last in the country to use a byline when criticizing drug cartels.

As a reporter for the independent Radio Haiti International in the 1980s, Liliane Pierre-Paul earned a reputation as one of the most outspoken critics of the Duvalier regime. Her fight for liberty persisted through subsequent Haitian governments, which continued to feel the sting of her criticism.

Maria Jimena Duzan risked her life by daring to probe for the truth and stand firm for press freedom in a country known for violence against journalists. At age 30, she was already foreign editor, columnist, and chief investigator for the Bogota daily, El Espectador. Hard-hitting and incisive, Duzan took on the dangerous task of writing about the drug trade in Colombia. Her column, "My Zero Hour," was one of the last in the country to use a byline when criticizing drug cartels.