Journalist Shahina KK is among the four winners of the International Press Freedom Award for 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced yesterday. The award recognises “formidable reporters working tirelessly to expose corruption, abuse, and wrongdoing despite considerable efforts to silence them”.
The other three recipients are Ferdinand Ayité from Togo, Nika Gvaramia from Georgia, and María Teresa Montaño from Mexico.
Shahina is a senior editor with Outlook magazine. In 2010, when she was a reporter with Tehelka, the Karnataka police booked her on two penal charges when she reported on lapses in the police investigation into the 2008 Bengaluru blasts. She was then booked under the draconian UAPA – “one of the first journalists in India” to be charged under the Act.
As of June 2023, she’s out on bail pending trial.
CPJ also said Shahina has faced “extensive harassment by Indian right-wing groups”, “persistent online harassment and lewd threats”, and was falsely implicated in the Bengaluru blasts by right-wing publications.
“By honoring Shahina with this year’s IPFA, CPJ shines a spotlight on India’s increasingly repressive environment for press freedom, with the targeting of journalists under draconian security laws, and toxic online campaigns particularly aimed at vilifying women journalists and ethnic or religious minorities,” the statement said.
On her win, Shahina told Outlook: “It has been a tough journey for the last 13 years of endless runs between police stations, courthouses and lawyers’ offices. I dedicate this award to all the journalists who are beaten, killed and framed for doing their job.”
Since Shahina’s case, multiple journalists in India have been booked under the UAPA and incarcerated without trial. Among them is Siddique Kappan, who spent 800 days in jail before he was granted bail. Watch his interview with Newslaundry here.
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