The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced that it will honor journalists from China, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, and Tunisia — as well as a champion of U.S. press freedom — at its 35th annual International Press Freedom Awards in New York this November.
Among the winners is Kyrgyz investigative journalist Bolot Temirov.
As reported, Kyrgyzstan’s seasoned investigative reporter, Bolot Temirov, runs Central Asia’s most prominent anti-corruption outlet, Temirov Live, from exile due to threats to his safety.
Temirov was beaten in 2020, shortly after the outlet that he led at the time, Factcheck.kg, published a joint investigation with Bellingcat journalists into vast corruption by a shadowy Kyrgyz official.
During a 2022 raid on Temirov Live’s offices, police are widely believed to have planted drugs on Temirov. Despite being acquitted of the charges, after an astonishing Temirov Live investigation exposed the police’s actions, he was expelled from the country.
In January 2024, 11 current and former Temirov Live staff were arrested. Among them is Temirov’s wife, Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, the director of Temirov Live, who is serving a six-year sentence on charges of calling for mass unrest.
In a sign of the growing pressures on journalists around the world, two of this year’s awardees are currently behind bars for their journalism, and three were forced to flee their home countries and now report from exile, the organization noted.
«Journalists are at risk like never before and yet their work has never been more important,» CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said. «The International Press Freedom Awards are an opportunity to show all journalists who face hostility and persecution that we stand with them.»
This year’s awards program will feature a tribute to journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war.
