“Freedom of expression and its defence is a duty, and defending it with words is a form of resistance”, the wife of imprisoned Syrian lawyer and activist Mazen Darwish told attendees of the International Press Institute (IPI)’s 2015 World Congress in Myanmar yesterday as she accepted IPI’s 2015 World Press Freedom Hero Award on his behalf.

“By teaching reading and writing we are also participating in a form of resistance,” Yara Bader said, pointing to her husband’s efforts to share information on the conflict that has engulfed his home country since 2011. “By being a witness he is resisting this violence.”

Bader made the remarks in an address to approximately 250 leading journalists and others who gathered on the World Congress’ final night to honour her husband and Mexican journalists’ network Periodistas de a Pie (Journalists on Foot), IPI’s 2015 Free Media Pioneer.

Darwish, the founding president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), and two colleagues have been imprisoned since February 2012 on alleged terrorism charges connected with coverage of human rights violations and the situation of media freedom in Syria. Darwish was held incommunicado for the first nine months of his detention and he has reportedly endured torture.

Syria’s government has ignored multiple international calls to free Darwish. IPI Executive Board Member Daoud Kuttab, also an IPI World Press Freedom Hero, noted while introducing Bader that Darwish, his former student, should have been released under the terms of an amnesty announced in 2014. However, Kuttab said, the Syrian court trying Darwish has repeatedly postponed even making a decision on whether the amnesty applies to his case, most recently on Wednesday.

Bader told attendees that award was “an honour to all the victims of the word and information in Syria”, adding: “It is for Khalil Matouq, the lawyer defending the right of expression who has disappeared for more than two years. [It is an honour] to Rami Hindawi and Akram Rislan; to the writer Hussein Isso; to Nazem Hamadi; to Samira Khalil and Loai Hamadeh.”

She continued: “From his jail cell, Mazen sends this prize to the writer, human rights defender and activist Razan Zaitoneh, who has been kidnapped since Dec. 9, 2013. He asked me to send to her these words: ‘To Razan, the jasmine of our home, our secrets are not deep. The secret is that we can’t be bought or sold, my friend.’ ”

Read the full text of Bader’s remarks here.

In remarks accepting IPI’s Free Media Pioneer Award on behalf of Periodistas de a Pie, Daniela Pastrana recounted the horrors Mexican journalists have endured in recent years – horrors that have led them to become “war correspondents in our own country”, and which her group has sought to combat.

Pastrana noted that, since 2000, when the PRI political party was ousted from the country’s presidency after more than 70 years of control, “82 journalists have been killed and 17 more have disappeared”. She also cited a recent report by Article 19 finding that half of all attacks on journalists in Mexico are carried out by agents of the state and that journalists suffer under a system of direct and indirect censorship via official advertising, privileges, commercial agreements with media houses and excessive media concentration.

“But Mexico is also a country of brave journalists, who, in the last few years, have rebelled against this fate of being permanently the pawns in a game that does not have transparent rules,” Pastrana said. “These journalists have gone out to fight for the news, so that the people in Mexico and in the rest of the world know what is taking place in our country. Because in Mexico, it is not only journalists who have been killed, but doctors, teachers, engineers, social campaigners, peasants and human rights defenders, too.”

She added: “To dismantle this machine of fear, bravery is not enough, nor is courage. To unmask the invisible web of corruption that unites political, economic and media power, we need professional journalists, collaboration and international pressure.”

Read the full text of Pastrana’s remarks here.

Leer el discurso completo de Pastrana aquí (español)

The 2015 IPI World Press Freedom Hero Award and Free Media Pioneer Award were given with the support of Copenhagen-based International Media Support (IMS).

At the close of yesterday’s ceremony, IPI and its partner Al Jazeera announced that the 2016 IPI World Congress and 65th General Assembly will take place from April 30 to May 3 in Doha, Qatar.