Iranian journalists win Henri Nannen press award

The Henri Nannen Prize of Gruner and Jahr publishing house for special services rendered to press freedom has been awarded to Iranian journalists who are subject to violent reprisals in Iran for their journalistic activities.

Reportedly, on May 7, Maziar Bahari will accept the award in Hamburg on behalf of his imprisoned and oppressed colleagues in Iran. Bahari, who is currently residing in London, was also arrested in the post-election events of Iran and spent months in solitary confinement.

A statement by Gruner ad Jahr publishing house maintains: “Illegal arrests and abductions of journalists by police and security forces, state monitoring of media, violent attacks and maltreatment and a growing number of journalists on the run characterize the current situation of the free press in Iran.”

Maziar Bahari says that such awards are significant because they tell Iranian journalists that the world is on their side.

Tens of Iranian journalists were arrested in the protests to the controversial victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections. The arrest of journalists and closure of numerous reformist newspapers and publications has been a major part of the Islamic Republic’s violent policies to quell the protests in the past ten months.

This marks the sixth anniversary of Henri Nannen prize which was established in the name of prominent German journalist who founded Stern weekly magazine sixty years ago.