Reporters Without Borders and Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel peace laureate,have been chosen as the winners of this year's Roland Berger Human Dignity Award.

This is the second year the Foundation has awarded this prize, which includes a grant of 1 million euros and which aims to promote "peaceful cooperation in the world" and to encourage individuals and institutions working to promote human dignity and human rights.

This year, the Roland Berger Foundation has decided to award 900,000 euros to Reporters Without Borders to honour its continuing struggle on behalf of press freedom, and 100,000 euros to Shirin Ebadi, who is currently the target of renewed strong pressure aimed at crushing her activities in defence of human rights.

"It is an enormous honour for us to receive this prestigious prize," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard said. "It rewards the work of an organisation which, since its creation by Robert Menard nearly 25 years ago, has been defending press freedom wherever it is threatened. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Berger for expressing his confidence in us in this manner. I am also very grateful to all those who work for Reporters Without Borders in France and throughout the world including Germany, where the Roland Berger Foundation is based." Julliard added: "The money that accompanies this award is the most important grant Reporters Without Borders has ever received and will enable us to reinforce our direct support for persecuted journalists and their families and to extend the assistance we offer to independent media struggling to survive in repressive countries."

... Payvand News - 03/26/09 ... --

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