Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, presided over the second Anna Politkovskaya-Arman Soldin Prize for Courage in Journalism award ceremony at the Quai d'Orsay today, Tuesday 5 November.
The jury, made up of Wilson Fache, Pierre Haski, Sylvie Kauffmann, Manon Loizeau and Marcela Turati, decided this year to reward the work of Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, and Basel Adra, a Palestinian journalist, who focus on Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank.
France created the Anna Politkovskaya-Arman Soldin Prize for Courage in Journalism in 2023. Through the prize, France pays tribute to the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who paid with her life for investigations into corruption, human rights abuses and the Chechen War, and the Franco-Bosnian reporter Arman Soldin, whose worked helped inform people about the reality of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
France continues to denounce the dangerous conditions in which so many journalists exercise their profession, as well as the arbitrary arrests of which they are sometimes victims. Every four days on average a journalist is killed while carrying out their work, according to UNESCO. The protection of journalists is essential to guarantee access to free, independent, pluralist and reliable information, the cornerstone of democratic vitality.
Following International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, held on 2 November and initiated by France in 2013, France reaffirms its unfailing commitment to press freedom and the unhindered exercise of journalism throughout the world.