Beatrice Mtetwa (pictured right), a prominent media and human rights lawyer working to defend and protect journalists in Zimbabwe, was presented with the Index Law Award on 22 March. Index on Censorship´s annual Freedom of Expression Awards honours journalists, writers, lawyers, campaigners, filmmakers and whistleblowers who have made a significant contribution to free expression over the past year.

Index on Censorship´s Rohan Jayaskera reports

The other winners are:

Index Whistleblower Award
Huang Jingao, a local Communist Party official in southern the People´s Republic of China, drew national attention in August 2004 by posting an open letter on a party website complaining that efforts to prosecute corruption had been thwarted by high-level officials. Removed from his post he was sentenced to life in prison in November 2005 after a campaign by party authorities.

ghobadi-small.jpgWinner of the Index Film Award
Turtles Can Fly, director Bahman Ghobadi´s moving tale set in the harsh landscapes of Kurdistan in the days leading up to the US invasion of Iraq, won the Index Film Award. A gang of wily and irreverent children are challenged by the arrival of a brother and sister, refugees whose bodies and souls have been irreparably damaged by the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Winner of the T.R. Fyvel Book Award
Into The Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide: The Survivors Speak and A Time for Machetes: The Rwandan Genocide: The Killers Speak by Jean Hatzfeld. In the late 1990s, French journalist Jean Hatzfeld interviewed survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 2000 he returned to interview the men behind one of the most devastating crimes against humanity in recent history.

Winner of the Index Law Award
Beatrice Mtetwa is a prominent media and human rights lawyer, working to defend and protect journalists in Zimbabwe in the face of frequent threats to her safety. Most recently Mtetwa secured the release of journalists Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds of the London Sunday Telegraph, charged after publishing critical accounts of Zimbabwe’s flawed presidential elections.

bensedrine-small.jpgWinner of the Index/Hugo Young Journalism Award
Sihem Bensedrine is the editor of the banned magazine Kalima and a prominent activist for press freedom in Tunisia. During the World Summit on Information Society in Tunis in November 2005, Bensedrine helped highlight Tunisia’s restrictions on freedom of expression. She has been jailed for her opinions and faces regular harassment from the Tunisian authorities.