Salima Tlemcani is the pen name of an Algerian journalist who began writing under this name in 1994, after receiving death threats from armed Islamic groups who did not like the way she reported on them. She has requested that she receive the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award under her pen name.

Magdalena Ruiz Guinazu’s career in the media has spanned close to 50 years. She is one of Argentina’s most distinguished journalists. As host of Magdalena Tempranisimo on Radio Mitre in Buenos Aires, she broadcasts to one of Argentina’s largest audiences. She also writes for the daily newspapers La Nacion and Pagina 12, and since 2002 has been host of a daily evening show, La vuelta con Magdalena (Back with Magadalena). She is the founder and current president of Asociacion Periodistas, an Argentine press freedom organization. In addition, she has produced documentary television films on various subjects, including the trial of the Argentine military junta and censorship during the years of military rule in Argentina.

Anne Garrels, a foreign correspondent with National Public Radio in the United States, was one of only two American women journalists in Baghdad during the recent war. Her vivid reporting brought the reality of a country under bombardment to her listeners. At one point she was blown back into the elevator of the Palestine Hotel, where she was staying, when a nearby building was bombed from the air. At another, she watched as a cruise missile passed right in front of her window. When U.S. bombs fell on the hotel killing two journalists, she was only a few floors away.

Tatyana Goryachova is the editor in chief of Berdyansk Delovoy, the only independent newspaper in Berdyansk, Ukraine, a small town on the Azov Sea. Her husband, Sergey Belousov, is the paper’s publisher. Goryacheva often covers city government, healthcare and local issues, and when she uncovers corruption in these institutions, she writes about it. In Ukraine, a country with one of the worst press freedom records in the world, this is perilous.

Marielos Monzon, a columnist for the daily Prensa Libre in Guatemala City, Guatemala, is known for her commitment to reporting on human rights violations in her country. Guatemala is a country still coping with the brutal aftermath of a 36-year (1960-1996) civil war in which an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed. By reporting on the bloody aftermath both in her newspaper column and until recently as co-host of a radio program, Punto de Encuentro (Meeting Point), Marielos Monzon has incurred the rath of those who would bury the past.

What is the IWMF's mission?
Why is the International Women's Media Foundation needed?
How does the IWMF work to implement its vision?
Why create a worldwide network of women in the news media?
Why create training programs for women journalists?
What is the IWMF’s history?
What are the IWMF Courage in Journalism and Lifetime Achievement Awards?
How does the IWMF select Courage in Journalism Award winners?
Does the IWMF give grants?
How can I support the IWMF?
Can I become a member of the IWMF?
Does the IWMF have student memberships?

Mary McGrory joined the Washington Post as a columnist in September 1981. She joined the Washington Star in 1947 and debuted as a national commentator in 1954 when assigned the biggest story of the day, the Army-McCarthy hearings. Her column has been syndicated since 1960 and currently appears two times a week. In 1975, McGrory received journalism’s highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. The award’s citation read "for trenchant commentary spread over more than 20 years as a reporter and a columnist in the nation’s capital."

On September 11, 2001, Kathy Gannon, who has reported for the Associated Press from Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1988, became the eyes and ears of the Western press in Kabul.

Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter for the independent, Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has covered both sides of the war in Chechnya, earning harassment from both the Russian government and Chechen rebels. She is known for her investigative reporting documenting atrocities against the civilian population of Chechnya by the Russian military.

Sandra Nyaira is political editor of the only independent newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News. She works amid almost daily harassment in a country with one of the worst press freedom records in the world. President Robert Mugabe, aided by his minister of information, Jonathan Moyo, has waged war on the independent press. All journalists must be licensed by the government and they can be prosecuted for criticizing Mugabe and his government. In Zimbabwe, journalists who cross the president risk beatings, torture and death threats.

In more than 60 years as a journalist, Colleen "Koky" Dishon has opened many doors previously closed to women.

She began her career in 1941 while still in high school at the Zanesville (Ohio) Sunday Times Signal. During World War II, she worked for the Associated Press and later became editor and president of a news and feature service she founded. Dishon then worked at newspapers in the Midwest before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1975. At the Tribune, she was responsible for creating at least 15 new sections for the newspaper. In 1981, only six years after she was hired, she became assistant managing editor/features, and in 1982, a year later, she became the first woman on the Tribune's masthead.

Jineth Bedoya Lima, a 27-year-old reporter for El Espectador, a daily newspaper in Bogota, Colombia, covers the conflict between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups. Her reports have regularly earned her harassment and death threats from those she writes about.

Carmen Gurruchaga Basurto, a political reporter for El Mundo, a Madrid-based daily newspaper, writes frequently about the Basque separatist group, ETA. Gurruchaga's stories have so threatened the terrorist group that since 1984 it has waged a campaign against her, hoping to intimidate her into stopping reporting on their activities.

In the two years since she became editor-in-chief of the Khartoum-based independent daily newspaper Al-Rai Al-Akher, Amal Abbas has faced constant harassment and censorship. The only female editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Sudan, Abbas was sent to prison in January 2001 and held for 36 hours because she published an article charging a judicial authority with misappropriating funds.

Flora Lewis was one of handful of women who forged successful careers as foreign correspondents. From her first reporting assignment as a UCLA campus stringer for the Los Angeles Times to her job as The New York Times foreign affairs columnist, Lewis's cleanly crafted prose and wide-ranging intellect brought the world into focus for her readers.