Fahad Shah, a prominent Kashmiri journalist, who is also the founder and editor of The Kashmir Walla and anthology editor of – Of Occupation and Resistance: Writings from Kashmir, has been nominated for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2020, Press Freedom Awards for Prize of Courage.
Seven journalists – four of them women – and five media outlets (or journalists’ organizations) are competing in three categories; prize for Courage, Impact and Independence. They include journalists or investigative media from Russia, Brazil, Philippines, India and France.
“The RSF Press Freedom Awards are designed to honour journalists who – by their courage or independence or the impact of their investigations and reporting – particularly embody the ideals of journalism that we defend,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “This prize does not just pay tribute to them. It is also deliberately intended as a demonstration of support for journalists who are too often imprisoned, prosecuted or threatened for embodying these values.”
The Taiwanese capital, Taipei, ishosting this year’s RSF Press Freedom Awards, after London in 2018 and Berlin in 2019. The award ceremony will be held in the National Library in Taipei on 8th December and will be livestreamed on Facebook in Chinese and on YouTube in English.
Elena Melachina from Russia, Margarita “Ging – Ging” Valle from Philippines, Fahad Shah from Kashmir and Mohammad Mosaed from Iran have been nominated for Prize of Courage by RSF.
In an official release, RSF nominated Fahad Shah from Kashmir, India and wrote, ‘Editor of the main investigative website The Kashmir Walla, Fahad Shah is regularly summoned for questioning by the police about his reports in order to intimidate and threaten him, but also to try to force him to reveal his sources, which he refuses to do under any circumstances. He has also been the target of physical assaults. The outlet that he runs has played an important part in defending press freedom, using innovative methods to keep 8 million Kashmiris informed despite the fact that they have been cut off from the outside world since the territory’s autonomy was rescinded in August 20