Anas Aremeyaw Anas Again

Anas Aremeyaw Anas of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has won the second prize for Africa 2009 Natali Lorenzo Prize for his report on “Chinese mafia sex” in Ghana.

The ceremony for the award of the Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism is scheduled for Stockholm, Thursday, October 22, 2009 on the occasion of the European Development Days. Fifteen winners, chosen from over 1,000 applicants worldwide, have been awarded and rewarded by an independent jury composed of eight members from the profession.

They consist of twelve regional awards, a special Radio award, TV Special Award and the Grand Natalie Prize. The second African Prize was awarded to Anas Aremeyaw Anas a journalist with the New Crusading Guide for undercover investigations which revealed the Chinese Mafia sex scandal. Having been hired as a waiter in a hotel, he observed closely the violent and inhumane practices of Chinese pimps.

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Karel De Gucht, said: “Freedom of expression is one of our most fundamental rights. By committing to be witnesses of our time, journalists have chosen what many consider the best job in the world. By showing the living conditions and contemporary accounts of events that shake the world, denouncing the injustices and scandals and revealing all these, is to participate in the promotion of democracy, development and freedom. “The Natali Prize is an opportunity to pay tribute to those men and women who sometimes risked their lives trying to improve the world we live in, putting us in front the realities of today. “I congratulate the winner of the Second Prize for Africa 2009, Anas Aremeyaw, a young journalist investigating the many attacks on the rights of man, for his tenacity and perseverance to denounce injustice.”

The first prize for Africa 2009, Natali Prize went to Richard Mgamba, of The Guardian on Sunday, Tanzania, for his article “The battle for souls”. The third price went to Moussa Zongo, of Event, Burkina Faso, for his article “Bread underground at the price of rashness”. The Natali Grand Prize went to Sichuan Earthquake, of Now TV, China, for his article “One year on from Lee Yee Chong”.

Background

Lorenzo Natali Prize is a global prize created in 1992, addressed to all media. The prize is part of the development policy of the European Commission which considers the protection of fundamental freedoms, freedom of expression, democracy, human rights as essential.

To organize the Lorenzo Natali Prize, the European Commission partnered with the World Press Associations among which are the most recognized, such as Reporters Without Borders (winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005) and The World Association of Newspapers (which represents over 18,000 publications on five continents).