Lydia Cacho, a 2007 recipient of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, has been named as one of the State Department's eight "Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery" for 2007. Cacho, a Mexican journalist and human rights activist, works to exposes abuses against women and children.  Read more about Cacho’s award.

Zakia Zaki, owner of a radio station in Afghanistan, was shot and killed in her home north of Kabul. Zaki, 35, was one of the country's few female journalists to speak out during the Taleban's rule. She had also headed the US-funded station, Radio Peace, since it opened in 2001. Another Afghan woman journalist, Shakiba Sanga Amaj, was killed last week. The 22-year-old worked for the privately owned Shamshad TV.  Read the BBC article.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJune 6, 2007 For more information:Lindsey Wray(202) 496-1992LWray@iwmf.org Grant from Howard G. Buffett Foun...

POUR PARUTION IMMEDIATE 6 juin 2007

Pour plus d’informations: Lindsey Wray (202) 496-1992 LWray@iwmf.org

Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho's car was sabotaged May 8. Cacho was also threatened earlier this month when she testified at the trial of a pedophile.  Read (in Spanish) about the incident on Cacho's website.

Journalists and media professionals in Afghanistan can now turn on their radios for valuable journalism skills and information. Radio Nai, a radio station dedicated to supporting journalists, began broadcasting in December 2006. The station, which broadcasts eight hours of programs daily in and around Kabul, was funded by Nai, a local Afghan organization working for the development of open media in Afghanistan.  Read the Internews article.

Jill Carroll, a 2006 recipient of the IWMF's Courage in Journalism Award, criticizes cutbacks in foreign news coverage in a report she wrote as a fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center. Carroll, who spent 82 days in captivity in Iraq in 2006, researched the drop in numbers of foreign bureaus and correspondents as media companies face financial pressures.

Raghida Dergham, a member of the IWMF's board of directors, recently launched a new website. Dergham is a columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat, the leading independent Arabic daily newspaper. The website includes her columns from Al Hayat, video clips of her television appearances and an archive of her past work.  Click here to visit the website.

The International Research & Exchanges Board has released the Media Sustainability Index, which provides analyses of the conditions for independent media across nearly 40 countries.   To read more, visit the IREX website.

Kathy Bushkin Calvin, a member of the IWMF board of directors, will be honored by Internews in conjunction with a celebration of Internews' 25th anniverary, to be held on World Press Freedom in May. Bushkin Calvin is executive vice president and COO of the United Nations Foundation.   Read more on Internews’ website.

CIMAC Noticias, a Mexican news agency that focuses on women's issues, has received Mexico's National Journalism Award for a piece on rape by the military in northern Coahuila.   Click here to visit CIMAC's website.

Nancy Youssef, McClatchy's chief Pentagon correspondent and former Baghdad bureau chief for the company, reported that the six Iraqi women in McClatchy's Baghdad bureau have received the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award. "The women are the keystone of McClatchy's Iraq bureau," she wrote. 

Mexico's Supreme Court is debating whether to recommend legal action against a state governor and two state attorneys general who conspired to illegally arrest journalist Lydia Cacho, a recipient of the 2007 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award. Cacho exposed a pedophile network protected by powerful politicians in her 2005 book, The Demons of Eden.  Read the E&P article.

Women reporters are covering increasingly dangerous situations, but this often involves a great personal cost: hiding assault and harassment to continue getting assignments. According to an article in the Columbia Journalism Review, female reporters often don't report mistreatment in an effort to not be taken off particular stories or beats. Read the CJR article.

British journalist Alan Johnston appeared June 1 in a videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site. In the video, Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza nearly three months ago, said his captors had treated him well, denounced Israel and blasted British and U.S. Mideast policy. Read the article in The Washington Post.