10:07, 7 October 2015

Syrian journalist receives Anna Politkovskaya Award

Syrian journalist and editor of an underground newspaper "Enab Baladi". Screenshot from the video posted by Chloe Fairweather, https://vimeo.com/124692703

In London, Kholoud Waleed, a Syrian female journalist and an editor of an underground newspaper "Enab Baladi", has received the Anna Politkovskaya Award. The international NGO "RAW in War", a founder of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, has noted the incredible courage and inspirational works of Kholoud Waleed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the Russian newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", was shot dead in Moscow on October 7, 2006. The verdict on her murder case was passed on June 9, 2014. Four natives of Chechnya and a Moscow ex-militiaman were convicted.

In 2012, Kholoud Waleed established the newspaper telling people about the civil war in Syria, the daily lives of civilians, and the human rights violations. The journalist publishes the newspaper together with people affected by the civil war in Syria and relatives of victims. The newspaper "Enab Baladi" employs mostly women. Many of them have to go into hiding and use pseudonyms, and some of them take refuge in Turkey and Lebanon.

"It means a lot to me to receive the Anna Politkovskaya Award, named after the Russian journalist, who was assassinated for exposing the war crimes in Chechnya to the world. The Award comes at the time when the Russian government openly supports the Assad regime, which daily commits crimes against the Syrian people," Kholoud Waleed said as quoted by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.