Rukhshana Media awarded the Marie Colvin Award at the British Journalism Awards

By Rukhshana Media 

Rukhshana Media on Wednesday was awarded the Marie Colvin Award in London, a British Journalism Award that recognises bravery in reporting. 

“It is an honor for me to stand here tonight and accept this award on behalf of my colleagues at Rukhshana Media. This award comes as press freedom in Afghanistan is increasingly under attack,” Rukhshana Media’s founder Zahra Joya said as she accepted the award. 

“Today, my colleagues at Rukhshana, as well as my journalist friends at other outlets in Afghanistan, are working in an extremely difficult situation. Exposing the truth can result in death and torture. Yet they continue to work in the face of these awful challenges,” she said in her acceptance speech.

“Nearly 260 media outlets were closed during the Taliban’s first 100 days in power. This means five media outlets were closed every two days! Hundreds of journalists lost their jobs. Many, myself included, left the country and went into exile. Others are still running for their lives,” said Joya, who was evacuated from Kabul by the UK government in late August. 

“Women journalists are particularly at risk. They are disappearing from the Afghan media landscape because they are women and they work in the media,” she emphasized.

Rukhshana Media was founded in November 2020, to cover news from the perspectives of Afghan women. Since its inception, the newsroom has partnered with the Guardian and the Fuller Project to report on women’s lives under Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. 

The Marie Colvin award was established in honor of the late American journalist, who was killed on assignment in Syria in 2012.