Tom's Blog of News-y Goodness

Happy Halloween!

To get it off my chest, I admit it: I was disappointed that Jill Carroll was not at the IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards. Obviously she was in the news for a long time and her story is a very powerful one, so the event started off on a low note for me.

Fortuneately, this didn't last long, and I found myself engrossed in the stories of the other three women. I say three women because I did not mention in my earlier entry the woman who really stole the show with both her life and her personality, Elena Poniatowska. She one the lifetime award. The first thing I noticed was her virbant, bright red clothing native to the Oaxaca. See the IWMF homepage for a picture.

Elena was born in Paris to a wealthy family. Her father was Polish and her mother was Mexican - she grew up in Mexico and studied in America. Despite her upper class upbringing and her exposure to different countries, Elena became a journalist. And not just any journalist, she devoted her reporting to the poverty-stricken masses of Mexico. She became one of Mexico's most famous journalists and wrote many famous books. She was also the first woman to recieve Mexican Award for Journalism. Throughout all this, she never took her focus away from the poor people of Mexico who did not have a voice. Elena was a lively speaker and I have to confess, I wasn't sure what she was saying the whole time, but she was very passionate about her reporting and was even funny at times.

The event was more of a public conversation with the winners than a ceremony. In many ways, this was much more poignant than a simple awards ceremony with speeches. Recalling the explosion that nearly killed her, May Chidiac was crying as she spoke of her family coming to her in the hospital. "I think it was a miracle I was saved," she said.

Gao Yu talked much more about the evils of the Chinese government than her own imprisonment. "In China," she said, "all the media does not have the right to publish their own stories." She said that there was "not much difference nowadays than with Mao." Gao lamented on the Chinese people's inability to access unfiltered foreign media, and that nothing is published domestically without the consent of the government.

May discussed why she continues to do journalism despite all the risks for her. Of all that was said tonight, this best summed up what the Courage Award is about: "I wanted to continue defending my country. If nobody does, Lebanon will be transformed to all the other Arab countries. If you die, it's a shame if you have to die coward."

posted by tromano @ 10:39 PM