The Canadian Library Association (CLA) is honoured to announce the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) as the 2007 recipient of the award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada.

It has been said that there has never been a famine in a democratic society with access to information and a free press. When people go hungry it's usually because there is already a scarcity of truthful reporting. CJFE campaigns to defend and promote free expression – as a cornerstone right that allows people to assert their right to food, to work, to assemble and to vote.

CJFE is a non-governmental, non-profit organization supported by Canadian journalists and advocates of free expression. It manages the world's only freedom of expression network, the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX). CJFE's work also includes: a Journalists in Distress Fund which operates to provide assistance in emergency legal, medical and safety cases around the world; work with the Journalists in Exile (JEX) to support them as they rebuild their lives and careers in Canada; holding the annual International Press Freedom Awards event to celebrate international journalists along with Canadians who are honoured with either the Tara Singh Hayer or the Vox Libera award; advocating on free expression issues such as anti- terrorism legislation, attacks on journalists, censorship issues, and impunity cases; and, doing outreach and education through events celebrating World Press Freedom Day on May 3 and Freedom to Read week in February.

There are very compelling reasons for CLA's choosing to give the 2007 award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada to CJFE, given the shocking situations involving journalists from recent years. This past year, in conflict zones around the world, 82 journalists were killed while trying to bring news of intellectual, political, economic, and scientific significance to Canadians and other global citizens : this is the deadliest year on record for journalists. The CJFE undertakes a range of programs designed to protect our access to information and the advocacy of a free press around the world and here at home. The work of CJFE deserves recognition as they defend the brave journalists who become human casualties in the struggle to control access to information. Indeed, the importance of the information and truths that journalists fight to provide are core to the democratic principle of the right to information that Canadian librarians defend and hold in highest regard.

For more information about CJFE, please see: www.cjfe.org

For information about the award, including past winners, see: http://www.cla.ca/awards/intfreedom.htm

The Canadian Library Association is Canada's largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy. Comprehensive information about the Canadian Library Association and its programs and services, is available on the CLA web site: http://www.cla.ca/.

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For more information on the CLA Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom, contact Dr. Antonia Samek, Chair of the CLA Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom, (780) 492-0179 or toni.samek@ualberta.ca.