Syrian journalist and rights activist Mazen Darwish was honoured with UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2015.
He was bestowed with this award by the UN’s Cultural body for recognition of his work carried out in Syria for more than 10 years at great personal sacrifice, harassment, enduring a travel ban, as well as repeated detention and torture.
Presently he has been jailed by the Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He was arrested in February 2012 along with his colleagues Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir at the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. All of them are accused of promoting terrorist acts.
About Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
- Established: 1997
- Named in honour of a Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota in 1986.
- It is an annual award given by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the occasion of World Press Freedom day.
- Funded by the Cano Foundation (Colombia) and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland).
- The award honours a person, an institution or organisation that has made a significant contribution to the promotion of press freedom or defence anywhere in the world.
- It carries monetary award of US $25,000.