Lebanese scribe selected for UNESCO award

New Delhi, Mar 29 (UNI) Lebanese journalist May Chidiac, a popular television presenter whose news bulletins and Sunday programmes -- Naharkoum Said and Bonjour -- are among the most widely followed in her country, has been selected for this year's UNESCO's Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

The award was announced yesterday in Paris by UNESCO Director General K. Matsuura on the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

Set up in 1997 by UNESCO's Executive Board, the prize honours the the work of an individual or an organisation defending or promoting freedom of expression anywhere in the world, especially if this action puts the individual's life at risk.

''Ms Chidiac's popularity owes as much to her professionalism as to her direct and open approach in a country traumatised by years of war,'' UNESCO said in a statement.

The victim of a car bomb attack in September last year, Ms Chidiac had one of her hands and left leg amputated. The tragedy shook Lebanese opinion, which came to see the valiant journalist as a symbol of freedom of expression.

The attack against her resembled the fatal attack on Samir Kassir, a journalist from the daily An-Nahar, five months earlier.

Another similar attack in December 2005 targeted Gebran Tueni, editor of An-Nahar.

Ms Chidiac's name was proposed as a candidate for the prize by the Lebanese Minister for Culture.

The prize is given annually on World Press Freedom Day (May 3).

The 2006 prize, worth 25,000 US dollars, is financed this year by the Guillermo Cano Foundation, James and David Ottaway -- respectively a former reporter from the Washington Post and a former chairperson of the World Press Freedom Committee -- and UNESCO.

The prize is named after Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano, who was assassinated in 1987 for his denouncement of the activities of powerful drug barons in his country.

UNI/SKS LS KP1449