------------------------------------------
Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil , 12 June 2000
The WAN Golden Pen
of Freedom
The World Association
of Newspapers (WAN) on Monday awarded its annual
press freedom prize, the 2000 Golden Pen of Freedom, to imprisoned
Syrian
Journalist Nizar Nayouf, in recognition of his outstanding services
to
the cause of press freedom.
In a message that was smuggled out of the Al Mazzah military prison
in
Damascus, Mr Nayouf issued an urgent plea: "help me, before it is
too
late."
Mr Nayouf has spent a third of his life in prison for the "crime"
of
calling for democracy. He has been tortured and beaten so severely
that
he is partially paralysed from the waist down, is nearly blind,
and
partly deaf in his left ear. He also suffers from lymphatic cancer,
liver
disease and ulcers but is being denied full medical treatment.
He described the conditions in which he is held as "one of the most
savage, bloody, criminal and secretive places in the world. Between
three
and five people die from torture here not every year but every day."
He
called his prison "this cemetery of living creatures."
His comments were read by Ruth De Aquino, President of the World
Editors
Forum, during the opening day of the 53rd World Newspaper Congress
and
7th World Editors Forum, which drew nearly 1,400 publishers, senior
executives, editors and their guests to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
for the
four-day annual meetings of the world's press.
Mr Nayouf's award was to have been accepted by his brother Salah.
But
Salah Nayouf was jailed just one day before he was to come to Rio
for the
ceremony and released four days later. "We believe he was arrested
to
keep him from attending this ceremony," said Ms Aquino.
Nizar Nayouf, editor in chief of "Sawt al-Democratiyya," or "The
Voice of
Democracy," has a further two years to serve on his ten-year sentence
of
forced labour for "disseminating false information" and for being
a
member of an "unauthorised" organisation -- the Committee for the
Defence
of Democratic Freedom.
"It is simply unacceptable that so many governments world-wide continue
to respond to criticism and dissent by locking up, and in some cases
eliminating, their authors," said Ms De Aquino. "Let us hope that
at
least one of these governments -- the Syrian -- finally begins,
through
this prize, to understand that its relentless and brutal repression
of
all free ideas, opinion and information, will increasingly make
it a
pariah of the international community."
The Golden Pen for Freedom, given annually by WAN since 1961, recognises
the outstanding action of an individual, group or institution in
the
cause of press freedom.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry,
defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000
newspapers; its membership includes 65 national newspaper associations,
individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies
and
seven regional and world-wide press groups.
Inquiries to: Larry Kilman,
Director of Communications, WAN, 25 rue d'Astorg, 75008 Paris France.
Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10
28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr
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