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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 findings. Any form of censorship may result in casualties and any attempts to criminalize coverage of the current situation clearly violate the freedom of expression.”
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by Vera Tellmann, DW editor
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 Michelle Bachelet
© picture alliance/AP Photo
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 information to flow, and people to have access to it. Governments need information to make accurate decisions that respond to the realities on the ground. The general public — all of us — need full and accurate information about the pandemic, and to be involved in the decisions that are being made on our behalf. Participating in those decisions increases people’s understanding of and compliance with measures that are being taken. It is shocking, in such a context, that journalists are being attacked, threatened, arrested, accused of spurious crimes and even disappeared because of their reporting about the pandemic. These are attacks on media freedom, and attacks on the public’s right to be informed.”
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.
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Laureates of the 2020 DW Freedom of Speech Award
Belarus: Sergej Sazuk, online journalist, detained and officially accused of taking bribes, Sazuk had criticized the government’s handling of the pandemic before his arrest.
Cambodia: Sovann Rithy, TV journalist, charged with “incitement to cause chaos and harm social security” after quoting Prime Minister Hun Sen, who had said the government was unable to help motorbike-taxi drivers on the verge of bankruptcy.
Sovann Rithy
© Phnom Penh Municipal Police
China: Chen Qiushi, lawyer, activist and citizen journalist, disappeared while reporting from the city of Wuhan interviewing doctors and citizens.
Chen Qiushi
© private
China: Li Zehua, citizen journalist and former TV presenter, disappeared while covering the crisis in Wuhan, reappeared briefly on YouTube months later.
Li Zehua
© Li Zehua/Youtube
China: Fang Bin, businessman-turned-citizen journalist, disappeared after several visits by the police while reporting from his hometown of Wuhan.
Fang Bin
© Fang Bin/Youtube
India: Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of an online newspage, summoned by police and accused of “causing a riot” and “leading to panic” after publishing a story about a politician violating COVID-19 guidelines.
Siddharth Varadarajan
© private
Iran: Mohammad Mosaed, freelance reporter, arrested after criticizing the government’s lack of preparedness regarding the coronavirus outbreak.
Mohammad Mosaed
© Farid KamranNia
Jordan: Fares Sayegh, managing director of DW partner station Roya TV, detained for three days together with a colleague following a report which included interviews with citizens about the lockdown.
Fares Sayegh
© Roya TV
Philippines: Maria Victoria Beltran, artist, jailed for a Facebook post in relation to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in her hometown of Cebu. The mayor called her post “fake news and a criminal act.”
Maria Victoria Beltran
© private
Russia: Elena Milashina, investigative journalist, received a death threat on social media by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov after she published an article on how Chechen authorities had responded to the pandemic.
Elena Milashina
© Caucasian Knot
Serbia: Ana Lalić, online journalist, jailed for two days after publishing an article about medical equipment and protective gear lacking in the city of Novi Sad.
Ana Lalić
© N1
Slovenia: Blaž Zgaga, investigative journalist and member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has faced ongoing harassment from the government.
Blaž Zgaga
© Nacional/Z. Čuveljak
Turkey: Nurcan Baysal, journalist and human rights defender, charged with inciting “public to enmity and hatred” based on her comments on the authorities’ response to the coronavirus.
Nurcan Baysal
© Amnesty International
Turkey: İsmet Çiğit, newspaper editor-in-chief, was arrested in connection with a news report about two individuals who reportedly died of COVID-19.
Uganda: David Musisi Karyankolo, TV journalist, severely beaten at his home by security officers, leaving him in a coma for ten hours.
David Musisi Karyankolo
© DW/J. Mugambwa
Venezuela: Darvinson Rojas, freelance journalist, imprisoned for 12 days after reporting on the spread of COVID-19, charged with incitement to “hate and instigation.”
Darvinson Rojas
© private
Beatific GumbwandaZimbabwe: Beatific Gumbwanda, newspaper reporter, detained for several hours due to an alleged violation of the lockdown regulations.
Beatific Gumbwanda
© TellZim
