This year’s IPI World Congress award ceremony celebrated resilience and courage in journalism. Prominent Mexican investigative reporter Carmen Aristegui was awarded the 2023 IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero award, honouring her decades of fearless reporting on corruption in Mexico despite targeted efforts to silence her. News site Myanmar Now received the 2023 IPI-IMS Free Media Pioneer award in recognition of its powerful work investigating and exposing human rights violations in Myanmar. Both awards were presented jointly by the International Press Institute (IPI) and IMS (International Media Support).

Watch the full video of the award ceremony here

 

Read Carmen Aristegui’s full acceptance speech in English

 

Held at Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, the ceremony began with remarks by Carlos Dada, founder and director of news site El Faro in El Salvador, who received the IPI-IMS World Press Freedom Hero award in 2022.  Before introducing Aristegui, Dada used the opportunity to highlight the one-year anniversary of the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, his co-awardee. Abu Akleh’s killing remains in a state of impunity.

In his remarks, Dada described Aristegui as “a symbol of brave and rigorous journalism in Mexico and Latin America” and “an inspiration for generations of journalists.” Despite being the target of multiple attacks and abuses by those in power, including presidents and businessmen, Aristegui has continued to speak truth to power and stood true to her journalistic principles. She is, he said, “a courageous journalist in a country where that is very dangerous. But the truly impressive thing about her is that she doesn’t engage in exchanges of insults with her attackers; she always responds with journalism.”

Aristegui, who has spent nearly three decades breaking major stories on high-level corruption in Mexico, working mainly in radio and television, including CNN en Español, began her acceptance by speech by thanking the IPI-IMS jury as well as her team for their professionalism, commitment, and courage to pursue critical and independent journalism despite the difficulties they face.

“This award stimulates, nourishes, and recognizes the work of editors and journalists who decide to keep going despite adversity”, she said.

She and her team have faced numerous attacks in retaliation for their work, including censorship, judicial harassment, and Pegasus surveillance – including against Aristegui herself and her son, Emilio. But a new tactic has emerged, she said, in the form of verbal attacks and smear campaigns against journalists by politicians at the highest level in Mexico, including the country’s president.

“What are these politicians and presidents across the world aiming at when they decide to systematically attack critics, the media, and journalists?”, she asked in her speech. “They’re aiming to deliberately damage and – if possible – destroy those two fragile axes that sustain the work of the press and its relationship with the public: trust and credibility. Not a single day is allowed to pass without poison darts being launched from the presidency against those who investigate, report, or think differently.”

Aristegui also spoke about the continued impunity for the killings of journalists in Mexico. Between 2000 and 2022, 157 killings of journalists and media workers were documented in Mexico – including 12 in 2022 alone.

“Killing a journalist means killing the public’s right to know and to be informed”, she said. “And if there are no consequences – which there aren’t – and if there is impunity – which there is – it’s an invitation to continue killing. It’s to continue allowing eyes, ears, and voices to be turned off. Voices that will no longer be there to bring us the news.”

Refusing to let Myanmar be forgotten

The Free Media Pioneer award was presented by Flemming Gjedde-Nielsen of IMS. Myanmar Now was established in 2015, the same year of Myanmar’s first partially democratic elections in decades. Known for its in-depth news and investigative reporting, Myanmar Now has never hesitated to challenge powerful actors and institutions and was therefore among the first independent media outlets targeted by the military in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup. Despite the ongoing bloody crackdown, Myanmar Now continues to fearlessly report the truth and pursue justice for the people of Myanmar– at tremendous risk to their lives and the lives of their families. In his remarks, Gjedde-Nielsen underscored the ongoing persecution of independent journalists in and outside Myanmar. Since the military coup, a total of 165 journalists have been arrested or detained and 46 journalists remain in custody or in prison.

Swe Win, Myanmar Now’s editor-in-chief, travelled to Vienna to accept the award on behalf of his team. In his acceptance speech, Win paid tribute to the courage and resilience of all journalists in Myanmar who risk imprisonment, torture, and criminal prosecution to deliver independent and accurate news.

“It has been nearly three years since journalists in Myanmar have been able to go out into the streets and engage in the basic functions of our profession, such as holding a professional camera or interviewing members of the public”, Win said at the ceremony. “Immediately following the military coup in 2021, all the independent newsrooms were targeted and shut down by the military junta. Media outlets were raided, our publishing licenses were revoked, our websites blocked, scores of journalists were arrested. A list of horrible issues, natural by-products of any oppressive state, so I feel very grateful to all the people in this part of the world who have democratic systems. Just because of them, we can assemble here without fear.”

He added: “I am honored to receive this award, but I accept it on behalf of all those who risk everything to share the stories of our country with our public and with the world – journalists who refuse to let Myanmar be forgotten.”

He continued that no matter the regional or technological challenges, journalists have an “inherent power nobody can take away, no dictator can take away. It is our mind, the power of the mind to write the stories and to produce the stories with all the love, with all the compassion. And the most important thing, no matter how dire the situation, in Ukraine or in any part of the world, we have to be steadfast to truthfulness.”

The award ceremony took place on the first evening of IPI’s 2023 World Congress and Media Innovation Festival in Vienna, which brought nearly 300 leading editors, journalists, and media experts together to tackle the biggest questions facing journalism’s present and future. IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen served as the emcee for the awards ceremony.

 

Revisit the IPI World Congress & Media Innovation Festival 2023