11. 11. 2005

UPF PRIZE FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 2005

LOME, November 11, 2005 – This year’s prize of the International Union of French-speaking Press (UPF) for freedom of expression is allocated to Lebanese journalist May Shidiak. More than 220 people from 40 countries, Serbia and Montenegro among them, participated in the 37th Summit of the Francophone Journalists, held in Lome, Togo. Lebanese TV LBC journalist May Shidiak, known for her courageous analysis and comments on the destructive Syrian presence in Lebanon, was heavily wounded on September 25, from a bomb planted under her car. The journalist survived, but lost her hand and leg. The Summit also paid tribute to the Congo newspaper columnist Franck Ngyke, who was brutally murdered together with this wife in Kinshasa on November 3, 2005. Journalists are killed not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in all other parts of the world where the need to suppress freedom of information exists. In Serbia and Montenegro, murders of Curuvija, Pantic and Jovanovic have not yet been solved and assassins never found. It still remains unknown who planted a bomb under the vehicle of journalist Zeljko Kopanja in Republic of Srpska, who lost both his legs in the blast. The next Summit of the francophone journalists is scheduled for autumn 2006 in Bucharest. The summit will precede the meeting of the heads of francophone countries, where Serbia and Montenegro could be admitted to the Union as an observer. The Union of French-speaking Press (UPF) gathers more than 50 countries: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, but also Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Macedonia as affiliate members. Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania also have the status of observers.