Ignacio J. Álvarez
Ignacio J. Álvarez is the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS. He is a Venezuelan lawyer (Universidad Católica Andrés Bello-Venezuela) and a Specialist in Procedural Law (Universidad Central de Venezuela), and he holds a Master’s Degree in International Law (LLM, American University, Washington, D.C.). Under his leadership, the Special Rapporteurship is conducting a special study on the status of investigations with respect to the journalists murdered in the region between 1995 and 2005, for reasons that could be related to the exercise of their profession. His office also prepares a quarterly report on the situation of freedom of expression in the region, in which it reports on the murders, aggressions and threats to journalists.
Marcelo Beraba
Marcelo Beraba graduated in journalism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He began his career in journalism at the newspaper O Globo in Rio in 1971. Between 1984 and 1988, he served as reporter and then head of reporting and director of the Rio bureau of Folha. In 1989 he served as managing editor of Folha, São Paulo where he was responsible for the coverage of the first direct democratic elections for president in Brazil since 1961. In 1996, he was the executive editor of Jornal do Brasil in Rio, and in 1998, the executive editor of the TV news program Jornal da Globo on TV Globo/São Paulo. From 1999 to 2004, he was director of Folha’s local bureau until he was appointed as the ombudsman of Folha de S.Paulo – a three-year term that just ended. He was a director of the Committee for Freedom of Expression and the Editorial Committee of the ANJ (Brazilian Newspaper Association). A Knight International Press Fellowship Award recipient, Mr Beraba is president of Abraji (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism).
Marisol Cano Busquets
Marisol Cano Busquets is a Colombian journalist. She was with the daily newspaper El Espectador for 14 years where she directed the Sunday Magazine of El Espectador.
She was director of the Mass Media Unit of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, creator and director U.N. Periódico. She won the Simón Bolívar National Prize of Journalism in 1993. She directed the area of communications and information of Universia, Latin American network of shared knowledge. Currently, she is an independent consultant and directs the Guillermo Cano Foundation.
Kavi Chongkittavorn
Kavi Chongkittavorn is assistant group editor of Nation Multimedia Group – publisher of the English-language daily, The Nation. He has been a journalist for over two decades reporting on issues related to human rights, democracy and regionalism. He served as a bureau chief in Phnom Penh from 1987-88 and Hanoi in 1989-91. He was former president of Thai Journalists Association. He is chairperson of Southeast Asian Press Alliance, a Bangkok-based, region-wide media advocacy group. He also serves as president of the jury for the Guerillmo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Marta Erquicia
Marta Erquicia studied journalism in Spain and France. Since 2003, she has worked as a Programme Coordinator in the Americas department of the leading NGO fighting corruption worldwide, Transparency International (TI). As TI does not investigate corruption cases but believes that it the role of journalist to do so, TI in Latin America and the Caribbean (TILAC) joined forces with the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) and launched in 2002 the Journalism Award of the best investigate corruption report. This initiative promotes qualified investigate journalism in the region, provides technical skills to journalists and gives them international support. Ms Erquicia is responsible at TI for the Award.
Glenda M. Gloria
Glenda M. Gloria has been a journalist in the Philippines for two decades and is the managing editor of Newsbreak online (www.newsbreak.com.ph). She joined the media in January 1986, a month after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, and rose from a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer to news editor in 1994 of The Manila Times – which was shut down five years later after its owner was forced to apologize to then Philippine President Joseph Estrada over a story. In 2001, she co-founded Newsbreak, a fortnightly news and current affairs magazine that has won acclaim and awards for its independence and investigative reporting; it went purely online this year. Ms. Gloria herself has won awards for her investigative stories, the latest in 2005 when she exposed military generals for their unexplained wealth. That same year, she received a death threat—a funeral wreath—following Newsbreak’s series on the alleged involvement of the Philippine military in election cheating and illegal business. Ms. Gloria teaches Investigative Reporting and Media and Politics at the Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University. She holds a masters degree in political sociology from the London School of Economics.
Jesper Højberg
Jesper Højberg is Executive Director of International Media Support (IMS), an international media NGO based in Denmark assisting media in conflict areas around the world (www.i-m-s.dk). Mr. Højberg has worked 15 years within the field of journalism, social research, media development, communication planning and development of conflict management programmes in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Arab World and South Eastern Europe. He is a trained journalist. He has worked as director of a UNESCO Film School in Zimbabwe, has coordinated the development of a regional Media and Civil Society Development programme for South Eastern Europe for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As founder and executive director of International Media Support he has led a team of media experts in the development of a Media Programme for the Arab World and Iran.
Ilya Krieger
Ilya Krieger was born in 1978 in Russia. He studied law at the Pomor University, Archangelsk, and earned Ph.D. at the Moscow State University. He began his career in journalism at Moscow semi-weekly "Novaya Gazeta". Between 2003 and 2006, he served as investigative journalist and reporter on issues related to human rights and democracy. Also he was responsible for the coverage of Michail Khodorkovsky's case. Currently, he is an author and deputy editor of the department of politics and media of "Novaya Gazeta."
Daoud Kuttab
Daoud Kuttab is Director of “AmmanNet Jordan”. He has worked for several Arab and international publications and was the Co-Director of “Internews Middle East”. In 1995, he established the “Arabic Media Internet Network”. “AmmanNet” is the region's first radio station to broadcast solely on the internet.
Raghu Mainali
Raghu Mainali is Executive Director of the Community Radio Support Centre. He served for 8 years as a print journalist before starting his career in the field of radio in 1996 as the program director of Radio Sagarmatha (the first community radio station of South Asia). He served for four years before becoming executive director of the Community Radio Support Centre. The Centre was established under the auspices of the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) to aid the development of the community radio sector in Nepal. Under Raghu’s leadership, the Centre has been directly responsible for establishing 20 community radio stations in Nepal. He is currently a member of the governmental task force responsible for recommending steps to reform electronic media of Nepal. He also recently served as a member of the High Level Media Commission formed by the Government of Nepal. Raghu has authored two books, co-authored 3 books and edited 5 books on community radio. Until recently he headed the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal as its Founding President. He also serves the South Asia Region to develop its community radio sector as the Vice President for South Asia in the AMARC Asia Pacific Board.
Gonzalo Marroquin Godoy
Gonzalo Marroquin is President of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and General Editor and Publisher of the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre. Formerly he was executive editor of La República, which he founded in 1993. He began his journalism career in 1972 at the daily Impacto as an assistant in the international section, going on to become news editor, then moved to La Hora as managing editor. He later founded the weekly 7 Días and a TV news program of the same name. He is a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, La Nación of Costa Rica, Rumbo Centroamericano magazine, NBC News and CBS News. Mr. Marroquín was president of the Guatemala Journalists Association in 1984-85. He is also a member of the IAPA Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.
Ferhad Murasil
Ferhad Murasil is Deputy Director of the Journalistic Freedom Observatory (JFO) and Editorial Director of the Institute for War& Peace Reporting in Iraq. He studied English Language and Literature at University of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. As a member of a team dedicated to bring in a free and fair media in a context where a free media was nonexistent, Mr Murasil is responsible for organizing journalism trainings, the editorial process and commissioning reporters for stories. He is also responsible for tracking and documenting the ongoing violations and abuses of journalists in Iraq.
Antonella Notari
Antonella Notari is spokesperson and head of media relations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. She earned an MA in literature and philosophy at the University of Geneva, 1988, and a MSc in Media and Communication at the London School of Economics, 2000. From 1989-99, she worked for the ICRC in the field, including stations in Somalia (1989-90), the Democratic Republic of Congo (1991), Iraq (1991-92), Sri Lanka (1992-93), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993-94 and 1997-99), Rwanda (1996-97). Her work focused on issues of protection, visiting prisoners, tracing missing persons and working with their families, repatriating people who had fled war zones and reuniting separated families. As head of press for the ICRC since 2000, she manages the Hotline for media staff in dangerous assignments, a service for media staff facing problems in areas of armed conflicts.
Geoffrey Nyarota
Geoffrey Nyarota was appointed editor of The Chronicle in Zimbabwe in 1983 but was dismissed after he investigated and exposed details of rampant corruption in the top echelons of President Robert Mugabe’s government. He launched Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News in 1999. This quickly became the largest selling and most influential newspaper, but ran on a collision course with an increasingly unpopular government. He was harassed and demonized, being arrested six times and threatened with death twice. His printing press was bombed and destroyed. The paper was banned. He now lives in exile in the United States from where he publishes thezimbabwetimes.com, an online news website focusing on the turbulent political situation in his country. His book Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman was published in 2006.
Bill Orme
Bill Orme joined UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) at the end of 2006. As the Policy Advisor for Independent Media Development at BDP’s Democratic Governance Group, Bill is helping to lead efforts to expand and strengthen UNDP’s support for free and effective journalism in developing countries, through professional training programs, better legal environments, and other means. Before joining UNDP Bill was a reporter and editor specializing in the politics, economics and conflicts of developing countries and an internationally recognized advocate for press freedom. He served most recently as UN bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times (2001-2) and as a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times (1998 -2001). From 1992 to 1998 Bill was Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was a recipient of the First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work at CPJ. He is the author of “Understanding NAFTA: Mexico, Free Trade and the New North America” (University of Texas, 1996) and the editor and lead writer of “A Culture of Collusion: An Inside Look at the Mexican Press” (University of Miami, 1997). Other books to which he has contributed include the “Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications” (Elsevier Science - Academic Press, 2003); “Crimes of War” (Roy Gutman and David Rieff, eds., W.W. Norton & Co., 1999), and “Journalists in Peril” (Nancy J. Woodhull and Robert W. Snyder, eds., Transaction, 1998).
Omar Faruk Osman
Omar Faruk Osman is Somali journalist. He was elected in 2002 to be the Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON). Under his leadership, the SOJON became an authoritative and strong voice that defends press freedom in the war ravaged Nation. Omar also headed the successful process of transforming SOJON to a trade union movement called the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) in 2005. In 2005, he received on behalf of NUSOJ the RSF International Press Freedom Award honored to the union. In 2006, he was chosen to be a member of the international jury of the RSF Press Freedom Award, and was re-elected to be the Secretary General of NUSOJ.
Joel Simon
Joel Simon worked as a journalist in California and Latin America before joining CPJ as Americas program coordinator in 1997. He got his start in journalism covering the Guatemalan civil war. From 1989 to 1994, Simon covered Mexico for a variety of U.S. publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Simon's book on Mexico's environmental crisis, Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge, was published by Sierra Club Books in 1997. Simon was promoted to deputy director in 2000 and in that capacity participated in CPJ missions to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Yugoslavia, Tajikistan, Mexico, Colombia, and the Gambia. He has written widely on press issues, including press freedom and international law, for Columbia Journalism Review, Slate, Newsday, and others. Simon became executive director of CPJ in July 2006.
Walid Al-Saqaf
Walid is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher for the Yemen Times, Yemen’s first and most widely read English-language newspaper. He took this position in 1999 after Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf – his father and founder of the paper – suddenly died in a tragic accident in Sana’a, Yemen. Before the Yemen Times, Walid was involved in reporting and editing stories following his graduation from the Computer Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. In 2005, Walid worked for The Wall Street Journal’s Washington DC Bureau and published in the international business daily stories on the Middle East. In 2006, he was involved in consultancy work for the International Research and Exchange Board, moderating and compiling reports on Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, and Yemen for the 2006 Media Sustainability Index. After working for about a decade in the media sector, Walid is currently in the middle of his master program in Global Journalism at Örebro University in Sweden. Happily married with two daughters, Walid has been a UNESCO Press Freedom Award Jury member since 2006.
Joe Thloloe
Joe Thloloe was until 2005 Editor-in-Chief at e-tv, South Africa's independent television channel. He was responsible for its news and current affairs programming. He is also former Editor-in-Chief of the public broadcaster's SABC Television News. Thloloe is former chairperson of the South African National Editors' Forum and served on the boards of training institutions in Southern Africa. Thloloe has been a journalist since 1961 and worked for World, Rand Daily Mail, Drum, Post, Post Transvaal and Sowetan, among others. He was intimately involved in the struggle of liberation and for media freedom in South Africa, with several spells in apartheid prisons. He has won several awards in his career and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1988. Thloloe is currently on sabbatical in New Jersey, USA.
Ricardo Uceda
Ricardo Uceda was born in Chiclayo, Perú in 1953. He coursed Economics and Journalism studies. He has worked as a journalist since 1974, as a reporter, editor and editor in chief for various dailies and magazines. He directed the newsweekly Sí, and ran the El Comercio’s investigative unit. From 1994 to 2000, he directed the most important journalistic investigations in Perú’s media, investigating the existence of the military death squad known as Grupo Colina and uncovering over one million forged signatures used to sign up Fujimori’s party for the controversial 2000 national elections. In 1994 he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. In 1999, he was chosen as one of the 50 Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 Fifty Years by the International Press Institute (IPI). In 2000, Columbia University recognized his work with the Maria Moors Cabot Award. Currently, Uceda is Executive Director of Press and Society Institute.
Aidan White
Aidan White is the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.
Ignacio J. Álvarez is the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS. He is a Venezuelan lawyer (Universidad Católica Andrés Bello-Venezuela) and a Specialist in Procedural Law (Universidad Central de Venezuela), and he holds a Master’s Degree in International Law (LLM, American University, Washington, D.C.). Under his leadership, the Special Rapporteurship is conducting a special study on the status of investigations with respect to the journalists murdered in the region between 1995 and 2005, for reasons that could be related to the exercise of their profession. His office also prepares a quarterly report on the situation of freedom of expression in the region, in which it reports on the murders, aggressions and threats to journalists.
Marcelo Beraba
Marcelo Beraba graduated in journalism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He began his career in journalism at the newspaper O Globo in Rio in 1971. Between 1984 and 1988, he served as reporter and then head of reporting and director of the Rio bureau of Folha. In 1989 he served as managing editor of Folha, São Paulo where he was responsible for the coverage of the first direct democratic elections for president in Brazil since 1961. In 1996, he was the executive editor of Jornal do Brasil in Rio, and in 1998, the executive editor of the TV news program Jornal da Globo on TV Globo/São Paulo. From 1999 to 2004, he was director of Folha’s local bureau until he was appointed as the ombudsman of Folha de S.Paulo – a three-year term that just ended. He was a director of the Committee for Freedom of Expression and the Editorial Committee of the ANJ (Brazilian Newspaper Association). A Knight International Press Fellowship Award recipient, Mr Beraba is president of Abraji (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism).
Marisol Cano Busquets
Marisol Cano Busquets is a Colombian journalist. She was with the daily newspaper El Espectador for 14 years where she directed the Sunday Magazine of El Espectador.
She was director of the Mass Media Unit of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, creator and director U.N. Periódico. She won the Simón Bolívar National Prize of Journalism in 1993. She directed the area of communications and information of Universia, Latin American network of shared knowledge. Currently, she is an independent consultant and directs the Guillermo Cano Foundation.
Kavi Chongkittavorn
Kavi Chongkittavorn is assistant group editor of Nation Multimedia Group – publisher of the English-language daily, The Nation. He has been a journalist for over two decades reporting on issues related to human rights, democracy and regionalism. He served as a bureau chief in Phnom Penh from 1987-88 and Hanoi in 1989-91. He was former president of Thai Journalists Association. He is chairperson of Southeast Asian Press Alliance, a Bangkok-based, region-wide media advocacy group. He also serves as president of the jury for the Guerillmo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Marta Erquicia
Marta Erquicia studied journalism in Spain and France. Since 2003, she has worked as a Programme Coordinator in the Americas department of the leading NGO fighting corruption worldwide, Transparency International (TI). As TI does not investigate corruption cases but believes that it the role of journalist to do so, TI in Latin America and the Caribbean (TILAC) joined forces with the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) and launched in 2002 the Journalism Award of the best investigate corruption report. This initiative promotes qualified investigate journalism in the region, provides technical skills to journalists and gives them international support. Ms Erquicia is responsible at TI for the Award.
Glenda M. Gloria
Glenda M. Gloria has been a journalist in the Philippines for two decades and is the managing editor of Newsbreak online (www.newsbreak.com.ph). She joined the media in January 1986, a month after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, and rose from a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer to news editor in 1994 of The Manila Times – which was shut down five years later after its owner was forced to apologize to then Philippine President Joseph Estrada over a story. In 2001, she co-founded Newsbreak, a fortnightly news and current affairs magazine that has won acclaim and awards for its independence and investigative reporting; it went purely online this year. Ms. Gloria herself has won awards for her investigative stories, the latest in 2005 when she exposed military generals for their unexplained wealth. That same year, she received a death threat—a funeral wreath—following Newsbreak’s series on the alleged involvement of the Philippine military in election cheating and illegal business. Ms. Gloria teaches Investigative Reporting and Media and Politics at the Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University. She holds a masters degree in political sociology from the London School of Economics.
Jesper Højberg
Jesper Højberg is Executive Director of International Media Support (IMS), an international media NGO based in Denmark assisting media in conflict areas around the world (www.i-m-s.dk). Mr. Højberg has worked 15 years within the field of journalism, social research, media development, communication planning and development of conflict management programmes in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Arab World and South Eastern Europe. He is a trained journalist. He has worked as director of a UNESCO Film School in Zimbabwe, has coordinated the development of a regional Media and Civil Society Development programme for South Eastern Europe for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As founder and executive director of International Media Support he has led a team of media experts in the development of a Media Programme for the Arab World and Iran.
Ilya Krieger
Ilya Krieger was born in 1978 in Russia. He studied law at the Pomor University, Archangelsk, and earned Ph.D. at the Moscow State University. He began his career in journalism at Moscow semi-weekly "Novaya Gazeta". Between 2003 and 2006, he served as investigative journalist and reporter on issues related to human rights and democracy. Also he was responsible for the coverage of Michail Khodorkovsky's case. Currently, he is an author and deputy editor of the department of politics and media of "Novaya Gazeta."
Daoud Kuttab
Daoud Kuttab is Director of “AmmanNet Jordan”. He has worked for several Arab and international publications and was the Co-Director of “Internews Middle East”. In 1995, he established the “Arabic Media Internet Network”. “AmmanNet” is the region's first radio station to broadcast solely on the internet.
Raghu Mainali
Raghu Mainali is Executive Director of the Community Radio Support Centre. He served for 8 years as a print journalist before starting his career in the field of radio in 1996 as the program director of Radio Sagarmatha (the first community radio station of South Asia). He served for four years before becoming executive director of the Community Radio Support Centre. The Centre was established under the auspices of the Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) to aid the development of the community radio sector in Nepal. Under Raghu’s leadership, the Centre has been directly responsible for establishing 20 community radio stations in Nepal. He is currently a member of the governmental task force responsible for recommending steps to reform electronic media of Nepal. He also recently served as a member of the High Level Media Commission formed by the Government of Nepal. Raghu has authored two books, co-authored 3 books and edited 5 books on community radio. Until recently he headed the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters of Nepal as its Founding President. He also serves the South Asia Region to develop its community radio sector as the Vice President for South Asia in the AMARC Asia Pacific Board.
Gonzalo Marroquin Godoy
Gonzalo Marroquin is President of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and General Editor and Publisher of the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre. Formerly he was executive editor of La República, which he founded in 1993. He began his journalism career in 1972 at the daily Impacto as an assistant in the international section, going on to become news editor, then moved to La Hora as managing editor. He later founded the weekly 7 Días and a TV news program of the same name. He is a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, La Nación of Costa Rica, Rumbo Centroamericano magazine, NBC News and CBS News. Mr. Marroquín was president of the Guatemala Journalists Association in 1984-85. He is also a member of the IAPA Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.
Ferhad Murasil
Ferhad Murasil is Deputy Director of the Journalistic Freedom Observatory (JFO) and Editorial Director of the Institute for War& Peace Reporting in Iraq. He studied English Language and Literature at University of Sulaimaniya, Iraq. As a member of a team dedicated to bring in a free and fair media in a context where a free media was nonexistent, Mr Murasil is responsible for organizing journalism trainings, the editorial process and commissioning reporters for stories. He is also responsible for tracking and documenting the ongoing violations and abuses of journalists in Iraq.
Antonella Notari
Antonella Notari is spokesperson and head of media relations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. She earned an MA in literature and philosophy at the University of Geneva, 1988, and a MSc in Media and Communication at the London School of Economics, 2000. From 1989-99, she worked for the ICRC in the field, including stations in Somalia (1989-90), the Democratic Republic of Congo (1991), Iraq (1991-92), Sri Lanka (1992-93), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993-94 and 1997-99), Rwanda (1996-97). Her work focused on issues of protection, visiting prisoners, tracing missing persons and working with their families, repatriating people who had fled war zones and reuniting separated families. As head of press for the ICRC since 2000, she manages the Hotline for media staff in dangerous assignments, a service for media staff facing problems in areas of armed conflicts.
Geoffrey Nyarota
Geoffrey Nyarota was appointed editor of The Chronicle in Zimbabwe in 1983 but was dismissed after he investigated and exposed details of rampant corruption in the top echelons of President Robert Mugabe’s government. He launched Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News in 1999. This quickly became the largest selling and most influential newspaper, but ran on a collision course with an increasingly unpopular government. He was harassed and demonized, being arrested six times and threatened with death twice. His printing press was bombed and destroyed. The paper was banned. He now lives in exile in the United States from where he publishes thezimbabwetimes.com, an online news website focusing on the turbulent political situation in his country. His book Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman was published in 2006.
Bill Orme
Bill Orme joined UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) at the end of 2006. As the Policy Advisor for Independent Media Development at BDP’s Democratic Governance Group, Bill is helping to lead efforts to expand and strengthen UNDP’s support for free and effective journalism in developing countries, through professional training programs, better legal environments, and other means. Before joining UNDP Bill was a reporter and editor specializing in the politics, economics and conflicts of developing countries and an internationally recognized advocate for press freedom. He served most recently as UN bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times (2001-2) and as a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times (1998 -2001). From 1992 to 1998 Bill was Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was a recipient of the First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work at CPJ. He is the author of “Understanding NAFTA: Mexico, Free Trade and the New North America” (University of Texas, 1996) and the editor and lead writer of “A Culture of Collusion: An Inside Look at the Mexican Press” (University of Miami, 1997). Other books to which he has contributed include the “Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications” (Elsevier Science - Academic Press, 2003); “Crimes of War” (Roy Gutman and David Rieff, eds., W.W. Norton & Co., 1999), and “Journalists in Peril” (Nancy J. Woodhull and Robert W. Snyder, eds., Transaction, 1998).
Omar Faruk Osman
Omar Faruk Osman is Somali journalist. He was elected in 2002 to be the Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON). Under his leadership, the SOJON became an authoritative and strong voice that defends press freedom in the war ravaged Nation. Omar also headed the successful process of transforming SOJON to a trade union movement called the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) in 2005. In 2005, he received on behalf of NUSOJ the RSF International Press Freedom Award honored to the union. In 2006, he was chosen to be a member of the international jury of the RSF Press Freedom Award, and was re-elected to be the Secretary General of NUSOJ.
Joel Simon
Joel Simon worked as a journalist in California and Latin America before joining CPJ as Americas program coordinator in 1997. He got his start in journalism covering the Guatemalan civil war. From 1989 to 1994, Simon covered Mexico for a variety of U.S. publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Simon's book on Mexico's environmental crisis, Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge, was published by Sierra Club Books in 1997. Simon was promoted to deputy director in 2000 and in that capacity participated in CPJ missions to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Yugoslavia, Tajikistan, Mexico, Colombia, and the Gambia. He has written widely on press issues, including press freedom and international law, for Columbia Journalism Review, Slate, Newsday, and others. Simon became executive director of CPJ in July 2006.
Walid Al-Saqaf
Walid is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher for the Yemen Times, Yemen’s first and most widely read English-language newspaper. He took this position in 1999 after Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf – his father and founder of the paper – suddenly died in a tragic accident in Sana’a, Yemen. Before the Yemen Times, Walid was involved in reporting and editing stories following his graduation from the Computer Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. In 2005, Walid worked for The Wall Street Journal’s Washington DC Bureau and published in the international business daily stories on the Middle East. In 2006, he was involved in consultancy work for the International Research and Exchange Board, moderating and compiling reports on Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, and Yemen for the 2006 Media Sustainability Index. After working for about a decade in the media sector, Walid is currently in the middle of his master program in Global Journalism at Örebro University in Sweden. Happily married with two daughters, Walid has been a UNESCO Press Freedom Award Jury member since 2006.
Joe Thloloe
Joe Thloloe was until 2005 Editor-in-Chief at e-tv, South Africa's independent television channel. He was responsible for its news and current affairs programming. He is also former Editor-in-Chief of the public broadcaster's SABC Television News. Thloloe is former chairperson of the South African National Editors' Forum and served on the boards of training institutions in Southern Africa. Thloloe has been a journalist since 1961 and worked for World, Rand Daily Mail, Drum, Post, Post Transvaal and Sowetan, among others. He was intimately involved in the struggle of liberation and for media freedom in South Africa, with several spells in apartheid prisons. He has won several awards in his career and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1988. Thloloe is currently on sabbatical in New Jersey, USA.
Ricardo Uceda
Ricardo Uceda was born in Chiclayo, Perú in 1953. He coursed Economics and Journalism studies. He has worked as a journalist since 1974, as a reporter, editor and editor in chief for various dailies and magazines. He directed the newsweekly Sí, and ran the El Comercio’s investigative unit. From 1994 to 2000, he directed the most important journalistic investigations in Perú’s media, investigating the existence of the military death squad known as Grupo Colina and uncovering over one million forged signatures used to sign up Fujimori’s party for the controversial 2000 national elections. In 1994 he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. In 1999, he was chosen as one of the 50 Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 Fifty Years by the International Press Institute (IPI). In 2000, Columbia University recognized his work with the Maria Moors Cabot Award. Currently, Uceda is Executive Director of Press and Society Institute.
Aidan White
Aidan White is the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.
