**Updates IFEX alerts of 23 November, 25 October, 4 October and 1 April 1999, 29 September, 17 September and 10 September 1998, 11 October and 27 January 1995** (WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 2 May 2000 WAN press release: Paris, 2 May 2000 For immediate release Syrian Journalist Remains in Prison, Contrary to Reports […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 23 November, 25 October, 4 October and 1 April 1999, 29 September, 17 September and 10 September 1998, 11 October and 27 January 1995**
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 2 May 2000 WAN press release:
Paris, 2 May 2000
For immediate release
Syrian Journalist Remains in Prison, Contrary to Reports
The World Association of Newspapers said Tuesday that, contrary to some reports, Syrian editor and democracy advocate Nizar Nayouf is still in prison.
Mr. Nayouf, winner of the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom and the UNESCO Guillermo Cano/World Press Freedom Prize, had been reported in a news agency dispatch to have been released on 22 or 23 April.
“The false report about his release has all the hallmarks of a manipulation by the Syrian authorities,” said Timothy Balding, Director General of WAN.
“According to our information, Mr. Nayouf was briefly transferred, blindfolded, to an unknown location on 26 April where he was offered his freedom in return for a signed rejection of the prizes he had been awarded by WAN, UNESCO, and Reporters Sans Frontières. He adamantly refused to do this and was returned to his cell in Al-Mazzah military prison,” he said.
Mr. Nayouf, Editor in Chief of Sawt al-Democratiyya (Democracy’s Vote) and Secretary-General of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom in Syria, has been imprisoned since 1992 on a 10-year sentence of forced labour for being a member of an “unauthorized” organization and for disseminating “false” information. He has been severely tortured in prison.
He was due to receive the UNESCO press freedom prize on Wednesday, World Press Freedom Day, and the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom at the World Newspaper Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 63 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.
