In conjunction with 30 International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) members, WAN-IFRA has instigated a joint appeal to President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea calling for the immediate release of journalist Dawit Isaak and all imprisoned journalists held in the country.

Aufruf zur Freilassung des Preisträgers des von WAN-IFRA verliehenen Pressefreiheitspreises „Goldene Feder der Freiheit 2011“, Dawit Isaak, sowie aller ohne Gerichtsverfahren inhaftierten Journalisten in Eritrea.

Aspiring independent journalists in any war-ravaged, poverty-stricken country face a daunting task. If you add famine, military dictatorship, and the fact that the particular country in question is Eritrea, this task becomes nigh on impossible. In such a context the achievements of Dawit Isaak, co-founder of the country’s first independent newspaper and laureate of the 2011 WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom, are all the more remarkable.