Zaina Erhaim of Syria named 2015 Winner of Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism

August 25, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 22, 2015 – The Peter Mackler Award, the US branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and Agence France-Presse are pleased to announce that Syrian journalist is the 2015 winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. The award will be presented in a ceremony at the National Press Club on October 22, 2015.

Zaina Erhaim, 30, currently lives and works in Aleppo, Syria. Over the last two years, she has trained about 100 citizen reporters from inside Syria, approximately a third of them women, in print and TV journalism, and has helped establish many of the new emerging independent newspapers and magazines in the war torn country. Erhaim is also the Syria project coordinator for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an international organization that support journalists in countries undergoing conflict, crisis, or transition. Many of Ms. Erhaim’s students, from all walks of life, have been published in major international news outlets.

“Zaina Erhaim is a force multiplier of journalistic values in a country torn by violence and irrationality,” said Camille Mackler, the Peter Mackler Award’s project director. “We salute her courage, upholding professional ethics and bringing them to the service of those left to write history.”

Syria is currently ranked 177th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

Upon learning that she had received the award, Ms. Erhaim said "when living in horror for all these years, it is normal to feel abandoned and forget that there is someone listening or reading to our stories and that she or he actually cares. It is such initiatives that make me feel that I, with my Syrian colleagues, do matter, and that our hard work is appreciated and it gives power to go on in my daily surviving battle."

Delphine Halgand, director of Reporters Without Borders – USA said “by awarding Zaina Erhaim, we pay tribute to the courage of those in Syria who fight for the freedom of information. Syria is the deadliest country for journalists since 2011. Facing harsh oppression, Erhaim is an outstanding journalist and journalism teacher”

"Zaina Erhaim has done extraordinary work both in training local residents and journalists who have become nearly the only first-hand source of news on the Syrian conflict and in supporting Syrian women living under siege.” Said David Millikin, Agence France-Presse’s director for North America. “She embodies the ideals which the Peter Mackler Award was created to honor."
About the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism

The Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism was founded in June, 2008 to honor the memory of Peter Mackler, a Brooklyn-born thirty-five year veteran journalist who championed ethical journalism and freedom of expression. Mackler helped transform the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) into the international competitor that it is today. Mackler also founded the Global Media Forum, Zaina Erhaim which trained journalists and non-profit organizations to use the media as a tool for social change, and Project Plato, teaching journalism as a life skill to disadvantaged teenagers.

The Peter Mackler award rewards journalists who fight courageously and ethically to report the news in countries where freedom of the press is either not guaranteed or not recognized. The Award is administered by Global Media Forum, the US branch of Reporters Without Borders, and Agence France-Presse.

The Award ceremony will take place on October 22, 2015 at 6PM at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, 529 14th St. N.W, 13th Fl.; Washington, DC 20045. The ceremony will be followed by a networking hour. Tickets can be bought on the Peter Mackler Award website.


For more information contact:
Peter Mackler Award
Reporters without Borders, Agence France-Presse
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Website: www.rsf.org