News Center- The Association of German Journalists (DJV) of Hessen has granted the 2023 Press Freedom Award to Iranian journalist Niloofar Hamedi, who is imprisoned for breaking the news about Jina Mahsa Amini.

The association grants annually the Press Freedom award to journalists, who are unjustly imprisoned or prosecuted, on the World Press Freedom Day (3 May).

The statement released by the association on Tuesday, May 2, said, “The protests that were fueled by the report of this young journalist are still going on and the Islamic regime has not been able to stop it.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations announced that Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi have been named as the laureates of the 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, following the recommendation of an International Jury of media professionals. The Award Ceremony will take place on the evening of 2 May in New York, in the presence of Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO.

What happened?

A Kurdish woman named Jina Mahsa Amini was tortured in custody by Iran’s so-called “Morality police” in Tehran for wearing her compulsory hijab inappropriately. After three days at a hospital in Tehran, she died. After her death, young journalist Niloofar Hamedi tweeted a photo of Amini's parents hugging and crying in the hospital. That photo quickly spread along with her reporting on the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini. Niloofar Hamedi was arrested by security forces on September 21, 2022 for her reports. She has been imprisoned since then.

 Another Iranian journalist Elaheh Mohammadi was arrested by security forces on September 29, 2022 for reporting about the police attack at the funeral of Jina Mahsa Amini in Saqqez.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are joint winners of both the 2023 International Press Freedom Award of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and Harvard’s 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. They were named as two of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023.