Awards
The CJFE International Press Freedom Awards, which were launched in 1998, have become the signature event of the organization's press freedom awareness activities in Canada. The gala dinner brings together some of the biggest names in Canadian media to honour colleagues from Canada and around the world who have been persecuted because of their work.
Two awards are given each year to foreign journalists who overcome great odds to report the news. Past award winners include Tunisian journalist and human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine, Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, Kazakhstani journalist Lira Baysetova and Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji.
CJFE presents three other awards: the Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award, the Vox Libera Award, and the Integrity Award.
The Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award honours a Canadian journalist who, through his or her work, has made an important contribution to reinforcing and promoting the principle of freedom of the press in this country or elsewhere. The award is named after the Canadian journalist and editor of the Vancouver-based Indo-Canadian Times who was assassinated in November 1998.
The Vox Libera Award is given to a non-journalist who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the principles of free expression and who has had made an important and sustained contribution - at home or abroad - to those same principles.
The Integrity Award was developed to recognize and build awareness of the need to protect the rights of “whistleblowers.” The recipients of this award are individuals who have acted courageously in the public interest without thought of personal gain, and in doing so risked reprisals in the form of threats to their careers, livelihood, or personal freedom.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Journalists For Free Expression