Mae Azango Award Acceptance Speech
Mae Azango, LiberiaFrontPage Africa and New Narratives Acceptance SpeechCPJ International Press Freedom Award 2012November 20, 2012Waldorf-Astoria, 301 Park Avenue, New York City Ladies and Gentlemen This is my shortest speech ever, because I can talk non-stop for hours without knowing it, but I will try my best to keep it short and simple, (KISS) as…
Mae Azango, Liberia
2012 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee (Courtesy of CNN) To watch Mae Azango’s acceptance speech, click here. One of a small number of female reporters in her native Liberia, Mae Azango is also one of the most acclaimed journalists in the country. After her father was killed by rebels in 1990 during the country’s civil…
Liberian journalist Mae Azango on cold threats, hot stories
Mae Azango was not surprised when the Liberian police failed to help when she began receiving threats of violence in response to an article she had written about female genital cutting that was published on in FrontPage Africa on March 8. She had previously reported critically on the police, including a case of police brutality…
In Liberia, journalist Mae Azango moves a nation
Liberian journalist Mae Azango’s courageous reporting on female genital mutilation, which made her the target of threats and ignited international controversy, has forced her government to finally take a public position on the dangerous ritual. For the first time, Liberian officials have declared they want to stop female genital mutilation, a traditional practice passed down…
CPJ Impact
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, September 2012 CPJ announces 2012 IPFA winners Four journalists who risked their lives to report the truth will be honored at CPJ’s 2012 International Press Freedom Awards ceremony. The award winners are Mauri König, a Brazilian investigative reporter; Mae Azango, a Liberian journalist; jailed Tibetan journalist Dhondup Wangchen; and…
CPJ urges Liberia to protect threatened journalist
Dear President Johnson Sirleaf: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by threats made against Liberian journalist Mae Azango, who has been in hiding since last week after she reported on the practice of female genital mutilation. We urge you, Madam President, as Africa’s first and only female head of state and a champion of women’s rights, to direct the Liberian authorities to ensure her safety and fully investigate the threats made against her.
Amid Ebola outbreak, West African governments try to isolate media
On the first Saturday of November 2014, when media owner and broadcaster David Tam Baryoh switched on the mic for his weekly “Monologue” show on independent Citizen FM in Freetown, Sierra Leone, he had no idea that criticizing the government’s handling of Ebola would mean 11 days in jail.
In attempts to contain Ebola, Liberia censors its press
With the Ebola epidemic predicted to get worse, the Liberian government has taken action to silence news outlets critical of its handling of the health crisis which, according to Liberia’s Information Ministry, has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the country since March. Publishers have been harassed and forced to cease printing, and journalists were…
Liberian press boycotts Sirleaf over aide’s comments
Most governments, even repressive ones, at least give lip service to supporting freedom of the press–especially on World Press Freedom Day, May 3. But in Liberia this month, Othello Daniel Warrick, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s chief security aide, shocked local journalists by threatening them and calling them “terrorists” at a public event to mark the…