DW FREEDOM OF SPEECH AWARD 2020
Awarding fact-checkers fighting the infodemic in times of COVID-19 DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “At a moment of a global health emergency, journalism serves a crucial function and each journalist bears great responsibility. Citizens of any country have the right of access to factbased information and critical fi ndings. Any form of censorship may result in casualties and any a ttempts to criminalize coverage of the c urrent situation clearly violate the freedom of expression.” by Vera Tellmann, DW editor
DW Freedom of Speech Award Since 2015, DW has presented the Freedom of Speech Award annually to a person or initiative that has shown outstanding commitment to human rights and freedom of expression in the media. The laureates of the DW Freedom of Speech Award to date are blogger Raif Badawi (2015), who continues to be imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, Sedat Ergin (2016), former editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, the U. S. White House Correspondents’ Association (2017), Iranian political scientist Sadegh Zibakalam (2018) and Mexican investigative journalist and author Anabel Hérnandez (2019). The Freedom of Speech Award ceremony is usually one of the highlights of the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, which this year was canceled due to COVID-19. However, the award still received broad coverage on DW’s TV channels, news websites and social media in 30 languages. dw.com/freedom @dw_freedom @dw.freedom
10 Weltzeit 2 | 2020
In the early weeks of 2020, the world was watching events unfold in Wuhan, China. Rumors of a deadly virus began to spread on Chinese social media platforms and Wuhan police accused Li Wenliang, a 33-year-old doctor at one of the city’s hospitals, of “making false comments on the Internet about an unconfirmed SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] outbreak.” Back at work, Li contracted the coronavirus and died a few weeks later, on February 7. Around the same time, young citizen journalists Li Zehua, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin started to report on the outbreak from Wuhan, sharing information and video footage on social media. All three of them disappeared in February. Only Li Zehua re-emerged after nearly two months in a short YouTube video, stating that he had first stayed at a quarantine center and then in isolation in his hometown. As the coronavirus continued to spread rapidly across countries and continents, violations of press freedom became more and more frequent side effects of the COVID-19 disease. Cases occurred mostly in countries already known for restricting free expression but also in liberal states. Authorities and politicians manipulated data, withheld facts and launched personal attacks on journalists. Their coverage of the pandemic led to dozens of journalists around the world being attacked, arrested, and even disappearing. DW journalists followed up on many of the cases and the DW management board decided that they would send out a clear message against this worrying development. On World Press Freedom Day on May 3, DW issued a statement honoring 17 journalists from 14 countries with the Freedom of Speech Award 2020. The laureates represent all courageous journalists worldwide who have suffered reprisals because of their reporting on the coronavirus situation. DW Director General Peter Limbourg: “We honor all our colleagues who are being prevented by force from doing their job in these difficult times. DW is demanding that all journalists who have been arrested because of their coverage of the COVID-19 crisis be released immediately.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet readily agreed to be the laudatory speaker. In a video message Bachelet said: “Now, more than ever, we need
