IAWRT Iraq-Kurdistan member Niyaz Abdullah receives International Press Award from CPJ

November 27, 2022 

IAWRT Iraq-Kurdistan member Niyaz Abdullah is one of four recipients of theInternational Press Freedom Awards Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 

CPJ’S citation for Abdullah reads as follows:

Abdullah is a prominent Iraqi Kurdish freelance journalist. She regularly contributes to media outlets in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, including Radio Nawa, the broadcaster NRT, and the news websites Westga, Zhyan News Network, Hawlati, and Skurd, among others. Abdullah has covered politics, civil unrest, government corruption, human rights, and ethnic and religious minorities in Iraqi Kurdistan. Abdullah faced legal harassment by security forces and local authorities, and she was detained and threatened with violence over her work. In 2021, she fled to France to escape threats against her.

The annual International Press Freedom Awards and benefit dinner honored courageous journalists from around the world on Thursday, November 17, 2022, in New York City. This year’s dinner was chaired by Shari Redstone, who leads Paramount Global.

The three other journalists honored are Abraham Jiménez Enoa from Cuba (living in exile in Spain), Sevgil Musaieva from Ukraine (providing reports on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through Ukrainska Pravda) and Pham Doan Trang from Vietnam (currently serving a 9-year sentence for violating a provision in the penal code making or spreading news against the state).

More information here.