World Press Freedom Prize

The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, created in 1997, honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

The prize, worth US$ 25,000, is awarded each year on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The prize is named after Guillermo Cano Isaza, the editor of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, who was murdered in Bogotá on 17 December 1986. Cano was a vocal critic of the country's powerful drug barons.

Each year, an independent jury of six news professionals selected by the UNESCO Director-General selects a winner from the many nominations submitted by non-governmental organizations working in the field of press freedom, and by UNESCO Member States. The jury remains in charge for a period of three years, renewable once.

The anti-mafia Italian journalist Marilù Mastrogiovanni serves as chair of the jury as of 2021. Other members of the Jury are:

Wendy Funes (Honduras), investigative journalist; David Dembele (Mali), Editor-in-chief of the Depêche du Mali/L’Investigateur; Hamid Mir (Pakistan), Executive Editor of Geo Television Pakistan; Alfred Lela (Albania), Political Analyst on News 24 and Founder and Director of Politiko; Zainab Salbi (Iraq), As a journalist, she created and hosted several shows including: #MeToo, Now What? on PBS (2018)

Award winners

Year Recipient Country 1997 Gao Yu China 1998 Christina Anyanwu Nigeria 1999 Jesús Blancornelas Mexico 2000 Nizar Nayyouf Syria 2001 Win Tin Myanmar 2002 Geoffrey Nyarota Zimbabwe 2003 Amira Hass Israel 2004 Raúl Rivero Cuba 2005 China 2006 May Chidiac Lebanon 2007 Anna Politkovskaya Russia (posthumous award) 2008 Lydia Cacho Ribeiro Mexico 2009 Lasantha Wickrematunge Sri Lanka (posthumous award) 2010 Mónica González Mujica Chile 2011 Ahmad Zeidabadi Iran 2012 Eynulla Fatullayev Azerbaijan 2013 Reeyot Alemu Ethiopia 2014 Ahmet Şık Turkey 2015 Mazen Darwish Syria 2016 Khadija Ismayilova Azerbaijan 2017 Dawit Isaak Sweden/Eritrea 2018 Mahmoud Abu Zeid Egypt 2019Kyaw Soe Oo & Wa Lone Myanmar 2020Jineth Bedoya LimaColombia 2021Maria RessaPhilippines 2022Belarusian Association of JournalistsBelarus 2023Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi, Narges MohammadiIran 2024Palestinian journalists covering GazaPalestine 2025La Prensa newspaper Nicaragua 2026Sudanese Journalists SyndicateSudan

World Press Freedom Prize

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