Noted Bangladeshi journalist and Vice-Chair of the International Press Institute (IPI) Executive Board Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul has been appointed Chairman of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize for 2013.  The nomination was announced by Irina Bokhova, UNESCO Director-General, at the organisation’s headquarters in Paris.

Bulbul will lead a 12-member international jury consisting of editors, senior journalists, and media experts from the United States, France, Indonesia, Hungary, Mexico, Jordan, Egypt, Senegal, Bulgaria, and Peru.

Named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, an assassinated Colombian journalist, the Prize is intended to honour a person, organization, or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. It is intended to reward journalists who have shown dedication in the name of freedom of expression and information, and to afford them the international recognition they deserve.

The Prize is awarded annually and marked by a ceremony and the winner is presented with the sum of US$25,000. This year’s prize will be awarded on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, on 3 May 2013 in San José, Costa Rica.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia on 12 August 1925, Guillermo Cano Isaza was assassinated on 17 December 1986, at the entrance to the office of El Espectador, where he had served as the editor since the age of 27. The newspaper’s building was destroyed in a bomb attack three years later.

The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was established in 1997, on the initiative of UNESCO’s Executive Board and is formally conferred by the Director-General of the Organization on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, on 3 May.