SOME OF THE 2010 PRESS FREEDOM AWARD NOMINEES
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Aaron Berhane, Eritrea/Canada
Aaron Berhane is an Eritrean journalist with more than 13 years experience working as a reporter and editor for Eritrean newspapers and magazines and the international media. He founded Setit, Eritrea's first independent newspaper in 1997, and worked as its Editor-in-Chief until he was forced into exile in Canada in 2002. Today, he is the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Meftih, a monthly community newspaper for the Eritrean community in Toronto, a publication that has earned him two National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada Awards in 2006 and 2009. Eritrea has been consistently ranked as one of the worst violators of Freedom of Expression in the world, comparable only with Burma (Myanmar), Turkmenistan and North Korea. As an editor of a prominent newspaper in Eritrea, Berhane was regularly harassed, persecuted and imprisoned for writing stories that criticized the Government. In 2001, Berhane managed to escape detention during an unprecedented media crackdown by spending three months in hiding before escaping across the border into Sudan and later into Kenya, where he petitioned the Canadian government for asylum. He arrived in Canada in 2002, but it took almost nine years for his wife and children to join him. The family was finally reunited in Toronto in May 2010.

Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco, Peru
Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco has been the editor of the Peruvian weekly Nor Oriente since 1979. He has built his reputation on exposing government corruption and defending the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Region. His integrity as a journalist is widely respected, but he has paid a heavy price for his work. In 1989 he was jailed for 27 days after exposing a corrupt judge. During the long reign of President Fujimori he suffered from government intimidation and his wife, a school teacher, was killed in a terrorist bombing leaving him to raise three children alone. In 2009, he again became a target of government harassment after he alerted the indigenous population about government plans to open up the Amazon region to mining projects. On January 11, 2010, in the space of 24 hours, Carrascal was arrested, charged and sentenced to one year in jail for aggravated defamation of a local official. According to a number of freedom of expression organizations, his imprisonment was in retaliation for his critical editorial line against the government. They have demanded his unconditional and immediate release.

Free Journalist Network Vietnam
Founded in 2005, FJNV is an independent press freedom organization working both within and from outside Vietnam to support free and independent media, encourage citizen journalism and promote positive social and political change. For their work, many members of the organization have been jailed or arrested. In December 2008, FJNV Chairman Dieu Cay was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after he openly criticized China's policies in Tibet and Vietnam and encouraged people to protest at the Beijing Olympics. In June 2009, FJNV associate-member and attorney Le Cong Dinh, was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison and two additional years of house arrest for spreading democracy propaganda. Dinh had previously acted as defence council for Dieu Cay and other human rights defenders. Vietnam is notorious for jailing journalists and bloggers. Its restrictions for online content and the government's heightened monitoring of blogs make it one of the 10 worst countries to be a blogger. According to IFEX members, 17 bloggers are currently behind bars - the single largest professional group in prison in Vietnam. In this climate, FJNV has emerged to provide forums where a virtual civil society can discuss sensitive political issues. The organization also offers support in the form of training, financial aid and legal support for journalists and human rights defenders who speak out against government censorship, and is active in mobilizing international support for Vietnam's many prisoners of conscience.

Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, Mexico
Emilio Gutiérrez Soto was a correspondent for the Ascension bureau of El Diario, a daily newspaper based in Ciudad Juarez in the border state of Chihuahua, Mexico. After writing a number of stories that offended the Mexican military he was forced to flee with his son to the US where he spent seven months in a US detention center before being released on bond. He is currently awaiting an asylum hearing. Gutiérrez's story is, in many ways, emblematic of the struggle that journalists face in Mexico today. As a small town reporter, he regularly had to navigate around sensitive issues involving the army, the police and the drug cartels in order to stay alive. But despite his best efforts to stay safe, a number of his articles offended high-ranking army officials and as a result, he was threatened and intimidated, his house was raided and he was followed by unidentified men wherever he went. Finally, on June 14, 2008, a trusted source informed him that soldiers were planning to kill him, so he fled with his son. Since arriving in the US he has become active in a number of campaigns concerning Mexican refugees and is one of the founding members of the organization "Mexican Journalists in Exile". To date no Mexican journalist has ever been granted asylum in the US.

Harun Najafizada, Afghanistan
Harun Najafizada is a 29-year old journalist who has worked as a regional reporter in Northern Afghanistan for more than seven years with the BBC Persian Service in online journalism, radio and television. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from City University London and has written a book on modern journalism which is currently being taught in Afghan Universities. Najafizada is known for his passionate defence of human rights and freedom of speech in Afghanistan and has written a number of very powerful and influential reports that have had a great impact on the politics of the region. He was recognized as the first Afghan journalist to report on the controversial "Shia Family Law". He also brought international attention the plight of his Afghan colleague, Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, who was originally sentenced to death for blasphemy but was released after various human rights and freedom of expression groups around the world pressured the government to reverse the decision. Najafizada has also spoken internationally about the challenges that Afghan journalists regularly face in their work in a country where freedom of speech is still considered by many to be a primarily western phenomenon.

Luis Horacio Nájera, Mexico
Luis Horacio Nájera is a veteran Mexican journalist who spent over a decade reporting for La Reforma media group in Ciudad Juarez and other hotspot areas along the Mexican-US border. Throughout his career he has dedicated himself to investigating politically sensitive issues ranging from government corruption to the trafficking of drugs, people and weapons. Based in Ciudad Juarez, Nájera's work as a journalist often placed him on the front lines of a war fought between rival drug cartels and Mexican authorities in what is considered to be the most dangerous region in the Western Hemisphere for journalists to work. In retaliation for his investigative stories, Nájera was subjected to death threats and other forms of intimidation on numerous occasions. He was followed by suspected cartel hit men, suffered harassment at the hands of the police and the military and forced into hiding because the authorities were unable to protect him. Finally, after a warning by one of his police informants convinced him that his life and the safety of his family were in serious danger, he fled to Canada in 2008. His family was granted refugee status in June 2010.

Serge Sabouang, Robert Mintya and Biby Ngota, Cameroon
Serge Sabouang, Robert Mintya and Biby Ngota were all prominent journalists in Cameroon who were arrested in February 2010, after obtaining (but not publishing) a government document that allegedly implicated a top presidential aide of influence peddling and corruption. They were charged with "imitating the signature of a member of government." Sabouang, Mintya and Ngota are three of at least a dozen journalists that have been targeted by security agents in Cameroon in the last year in what free expression organizations call "a wave of arrests, harassment, criminal prosecutions and abuse of journalists who investigate sensitive public issues." After their arrest, the men were held incommunicado for a number of days, interrogated and tortured for their sources. They were then transferred to Kondengui prison on March 5, 2010, a pre-trial detention facility described by human rights groups as "a hell on earth." Ngota's health deteriorated after contracting tuberculosis at the prison and he died of "abandonment, improper care" and "failure to render assistance" according to the prison death certificate. Sambouang and Mintya remain at the detention center where it is suspected that they have been subjected to psychological and physical torture. If convicted they face up to 15 years in prison.

Islamuddin Sajid, Pakistan
Islamuddin Sajid began his journalism career at the age of 18 as a correspondent for the local daily newspaper Mashriq. Described as a talented and fearless journalist, Sajid quickly moved up the ranks of the journalism world and now covers a broad range of issues including the war on terror for Express News TV channel, the largest media organization in Pakistan. Sajid works in the war-torn North-West Frontier Province, a region considered so dangerous that in 2009, five daily newspapers were forced to shut down operations as journalists moved with their families to safer areas. Journalists who remained in the territory have been targeted in both rocket and suicide bombing attacks. In May 2009, Sajid's family home was targeted by militants and destroyed by dynamite. Sajid's 18-member family was left homeless and are currently living in a relief camp in Mardan District. However, the incident did not deter Sajid from his work, and despite the near media blackout he continues to cover the volatile region, believing that his role as a journalist is to bridge the gap between the public and the government and work for justice in his region and in his country.

Samuel Sarr, The Gambia
Samuel Sarr began his journalism career in 1987, as a court reporter for Foroyaa, one of the few national and independent newspapers in The Gambia. In 2001, he became the paper's managing editor, a position he still holds. In addition, Sarr is an adviser to the Gambian Press Union and coordinator for the online radio station Alternative Voice for Gambians. He also publishes a monthly review on Gambian detainees, documenting their legal status and conditions of their incarceration. Sarr's dedication to the principles of press freedom and human rights has been evident throughout his career. But in a country where freedom of expression is extremely restricted, Sarr's convictions have been a heavy burden to bear. In 1983, he was arrested and detained for seven months on charges of sedition. He was arrested again in 2009, for sedition and criminal defamation. During his trial Sarr made a number of impassioned arguments for freedom of the press and vowed to continue publishing divergent and dissenting views in his paper. He was sentenced to two years in jail, but received a presidential pardon after public pressure forced the government to reverse the conviction. His conduct during the trial and his subsequent release is said to have emboldened a number of media outlets to begin reporting on more controversial and politically sensitive issues.

Brankica Stankovic, Serbia
Brankica Stankovic began her journalism career in 1997, and has spent 13 years reporting for the B92 radio and television network in Serbia. The media outlet was known for its politically independent reporting during the presidency of Slobodan Milosevic and was made famous after becoming the subject of the bestselling book "This is Serbia Calling". Stankovic herself has won a number of prestigious awards for her investigative journalism including the 2008 Bronze Olive Award for her report on Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. She was also the recipient of the Dusan Bogavac Award for Ethics and Courage in Journalism for her weekly television program "The Insider" which is said to have raised the standards of journalism in Serbia by tackling politically sensitive issues which had been marginalized or deliberately covered up for years. However, her success as a journalist has come at great personal cost. Stankovic has been subjected to ongoing threats, intimidation and harassment by right-wing nationalists and extremist football fan clubs and she has been subjected to numerous threats of rape and murder. At football games her enemies have beat, kicked and knifed dolls in her image and openly declared her death to be imminent. She has been under police protection for almost two years, yet the Serbian courts continue to trivialize these incidents as "private matters."

Magomed Toriev - Russia
Magomed Toriev is an investigative journalist who has faced severe persecution for his work in Russia's volatile republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Part of a small circle of journalists that dared to work for independent media in the region, he reported for Ingushetiya.ru an online publication widely respected in both Russia and abroad as a reliable source of information in the tightly controlled southern republic. Journalists working for Ingushetiya.ru have been threatened, beaten, abducted and even killed in retaliation for their sharp commentary and coverage of politically sensitive issues. Forced into exile with his family in 2006 for his coverage of human rights violations in North Caucasus, Toriev continued to investigate the disappearance and murder of former colleagues and civilians from his new home in Czech Republic. However, after he received death threats and both his apartment and office were vandalized, Toriev began to fear his life was in danger once again. So far his attempts to seek protection from the authorities in the Czech Republic have proved unsuccessful and a number of free expression and human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) remain deeply concerned for his safety.